Bareilly — the city of jhumka, kajal, and kites — will once again witness an interesting four-cornered contest with six-time BJP candidate and former Union Minister Santosh Gangwar representing the Bareilly seat, who reportedly has an edge over other candidates.
Sitting Congress MP Praveen Singh Aron along with Samajwadi Party candidate Ayesha Islam and Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Umesh Gautam’s presence, however, has made the election much more interesting and may change the tide in their favour during the second phase of polling on April 17.
Gangwar, a six-time MP from the Bareilly seat in the Rohilkhand region of the State — is trying his seventh win from the seat, which has sent several senior leaders to lok Sabha including country’s first Union Minister of State for Defence Satish Chandra and Begam Abida Ahmed, wife of former President Fakkuradin Ali Ahmed.
Of the 15 elections and one by-elections held here so far, the BJP and Janasangha have won eight times followed by the six-time winner Congress party and Bharatiya lok Dal (Janata Party) and Janata Party (Secular)’s victory one-time each.
Bareilly has 15.84 lakh voters with around seven lakh women. However, with the ailing cottage industry employees, lakhs of people in kites, kajal and jhumka manufacturing sector would be the main focus of all the candidates.
Bareilly lok Sabha seat has five Assembly segments — Bareilly and cantonment seats have BJP members while Nababganj seat has an SP member, Meerganj seat has BSP and the Bhojipura seat has the member of Ittehad-e-Millat council.
The seat has a good percentage of Muslim, Backward, Schedule Caste and Brahmin votes. But in the past Kurmi and Vaisha have won the elections six-times each while a Muslim candidate won three times. However, BJP candidate Santosh Gangwar is the only Kurmi candidate who has won the elections six times. Communal issues always rock the elections in Bareilly seat and this time too, the situation is not different here though.
The seat was captured by Janasangha in 1962 after the first election of 1952 and the second in 1957 was won by Congress leader Satish Chandra. But later Satish Chandra experienced defeat on the hands of Janasangha in 1962 and 1967. Satish Chandra won the 1971 elections for the third time but lost to Janata Party in 1977 during the Emergency. In 1980 Misrayar Khan won the elections on Janata Party (Secular) ticket but after his sudden death and by-elections in 1981 Begum Abida Ahmed won the elections for Congress in 1985.
But after that, Gangwar took over the seat and won the elections in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. He was, however, defeated in 2009 by Congress candidate Praveen Singh Aron by a slender margin of over 9,000 votes.
Meanwhile, SP candidate Ayesha Islam, is the wife of SP MlA Sahjil Islam and her father-in-law Islam Sabir had unsuccessfully contested the Bareilly lok Sabha elections five times. On the other hand BSP candidate Umesh Gautam, chancellor of the Invertis University, is contesting the election for the first time.
The Congress candidate Praveen Singh Aron has been a former Minister in Mayawati Government in 1995 after winning the Assembly elections on SP ticket in 1993. Though there are 14 candidates in the fray, including CPI candidate Masrat Warsi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sunil Kumar and Peace Party candidate Aslam Advocate, the main contest is among the four major political parties. Bareilly goes to polls on April 17.