lucknow West Assembly constituency with 3.87 lakh voters and more than 25 per cent Muslim population will witness a triangular fight as Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) candidates are pitted against one another.
Samajwadi Party’s Mohd Rehan is up against his BSP rival Arman Khan and an old BJP war horse Suresh Srivastava are the main contestants. The west comprises several parts of old city areas including Chowk, Nakhas, Saadatganj, Rustamnagar, Kazmain, Haiderganj.
The lucknow West seat remained a strong hold of BJP for 20 years, from 1989 to 2009 after which the Congress grabbed the seat in a 2009 by-election. In previous 2012 Assembly polls, SP candidate Mohd Rehan won the seat by defeating BJP candidate Suresh Kumar Srivastava with a margin of nearly 7,000 votes.
On the seat, the sitting SP MlA Mohd Rehan has again got a chance to contest on party’s ticket while BJP has again trusted three-time MlA Suresh Kumar Srivstava. However, BSP has fielded a fresh Muslim face Armaan Khan.
Shia Cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad has extended open support to BSP and his team has launched extensive campaign in favour of Armaan. Interestingly, 70 per cent of clerics followers are the voters of lucknow West seat but on the other side, Sunni cleric Mualana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali is supporting the SP.
According to local analysts, this sectarian division of Muslim votes in the constituency could benefit the BJP candidate Suresh Srivastava as in the constituency, the large presence of Brahmin and Yadav voters cannot be ruled out which could go with the BJP.
In the constituency, the major issues of the voters are traffic jams, frequent power cuts, water logging in monsoon season, quality education and poor infrastructure. There are two important markets Chowk and Nakhas but there are no parking facilities.
BJP candidate Suresh said, “I have prepared a 21 points list of works which needs to be taken up for bringing development in the area. Since 2009 not much development has been done and people are deprived of water, road and electricity.”
BSP candidate Armaan said the people of the constituency have waited for the development from a very long time. “The condition of roads, water supply and electricity is a reality. If I get elected, I will provide better facilities,” he said.