The contest in lucknow Central constituency has posed a challenge for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance. Despite the fact that Congress withdrew its candidate at the eleventh hour in favour of its alliance partner, Abdul Maroof Khan (Congress) has defied the party and is contesting against SP’s Ravidas Mehrotra.
Chances are high that he could spoil their chances.
Another interesting fact is that the BJP candidate Brijesh Pathak is a turncoat. He switched from the BSP to the BJP when he was denied a ticket from the BSP. But his entry in the BJP was not easy since the old guards in the saffron party frowned at ticket distribution to newcomers.
The contest is a triangular fight with SP’s Minister for Child and Family Welfare, Ravidas Mahrotra, BJP’s Brijesh Pathak and BSP’s Rajiv Srivastava . On the other hand defiant Congress contestant Abdul Maroof Khan is largely depending on the minorities votes to defeat his SP opponent.
Malhotra has a Robinhood image among the public for being all time available leader while BJP Brijesh Pathak has a large influence in the Central constituency for being a former BSP leader and a leader of lucknow University Student Union.
The poll strategist believe that Congress contestant Maroof is the only Muslim candidate and so he will dent the SP vote bank (especially Muslims) and thus will dim the prospects of SP contestant Ravidas Mahrotra.
However, Malhotra poll managers believe that since Muslims prefer tactical voting, they will go by the rule and may vote for SP.
BJP contestant Brijesh Pathak is banking on BJP traditional voters, besides the Brahmin votes as there is no prominent Brahmin face in the election. He also is banking on Vaisya community who are the second largest voters in the constituency.
If they opt traditional voting, they may upset winning equation in favour to Mahrotra, who is facing a daggers drawn with Congress contestant Maroof.
However, the BJP may have to face a serious setback from Sonkars, who as it is assumed, may vote to Shiv Sena contestant Shyam Sonkar on a caste equation.
Also BSP contestant Rajiv Srivastava in likelihood get some chunk of Kayastha votes as he represents the caste, besides the core Dalit vote, he will also take lead at a number of polling booths. However, the BJP contestant Pathak seemed to setting right the equation with the BSP contestants on the caste line as Brahmin voters may likely to vote him.
SP’s Mehrotra campaign managers said, “He has a large following due to his easy accessibility. However Abdul is proving a ‘thorn in flesh’.”