Agra and neighbouring Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha seats are heading towards interesting contest with Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar locked in a close contest in Sikri, while the battle in the Taj City will be a fight to watch.
The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh State Minister SP Singh Baghel from Agra while and Manoj Soni is the BSP candidate. Former Income Tax Commissioner Preeta Harit is the Congress candidate.
Though Baghel appears to be better placed than his rivals, the factionalism within the party is giving him headache. Supporters of sitting MP Ram Shanker Katheria, who was axed from the Modi Council of Ministers and shifted to neigbouring Etawah Lok Sabha constituency, are very upset. Katheria got elected from Agra twice and has considerable following here.
The gathbandhan candidate Manoj Soni is struggling to cope up with the defection of several BSP leaders like former Minister Devendra Singh Chillu, former MLA Dharmpal Singh and former MLA candidate Digamber Singh.
Agra is known as ‘Dalit capital’ and then BSP candidate Kunwar Chand Vakil lost to Katheria by about 10,000 votes. The BSP proved its hold during the 2012 Assembly elections when it won six out of total nine Assembly seats falling under Agra district. However, it failed to win even a single seat in 2017 Assembly election.
While Jatavs constitute a major share of Dalit population and remain loyal to the BSP, the non-Jatavs votes go to other parties also. The gathbandhan candidates can also count on gaining undivided Muslim votes which can prove to be a game changer in combination with loyal Jatav votes of the BSP.
“Katheria supporters are creating troubles for Baghel. However, Baghel still enjoys the advantage of being in the ruling side and is himself a Minister in the State Government. Agra elections always begin with real issues but end with caste and religion equations. Perhaps this is the reason that Agra has been held in past by all like BJP, Congress, SP and BSP and Lok Dal,” explained political analyst Subransh Rai on as the sidelines of a campaign in Fatehpur Sikri.
In Fatehpur Sikri which is also Agra Rural Seat, the main contest is between Raj Babbar and Jat leader Rajkumar Chahar of the BJP. The BSP changed candidate on this seat thrice and now Bhagwan Sharma is contesting as grand alliance candidate. Raj Babbar has a great support among the locals due to his previous tenure as Agra MP,” Subransh explained.
In the 2014 elections, on the Agra seat, the BJP got 5,83,716 votes, the BSP got 2,83,453 votes, the SP got 1,34,708 votes and Congress only 34,700 votes. On Fatehpur Sikri seat, the BJP got 4,26,584 votes, the SP got 2,13,397 votes, the BSP got 2,53,483 votes and RLD only 24,185 votes.
“If the 2014 poll results are weighed upon then BJP may face a lot of trouble in both the seats if traditional voters of SP and BSP join hands,” said a party worker of BJP.
