Senior Congress leader and Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma faces an uphill task in four-cornered Gonda lok Sabha seat witnessing a tough competition with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party candidates.
Though there are 15 candidates in the fray but still the contest is between Verma, BJP candidate Kritivardhan Singh — a two time MP from the seat, BSP’s Akbar Ahmed Dumpy and SP’s Nandita Shukla. Peace Partys Masood Alam Khan is also trying to woo the Muslim voters in the constituency which can also harm the sitting Congress leader.
Verma, has shifted to Gonda in 2009 elections from the adjoining Kaiserganj seat and defeated the then sitting member of the SP Kritivardhan Singh of the SP by just around 23,000 votes. But this time too electoral arithmetic of Gonda constituency still favours Verma. The Gonda lok Sabha seat is traditionally dominated by Rajput community. All other communities have always rallied against the Rajputs.
like the other parts of the country, Modi wave could also upset the arithmetic of other probable candidates. In 2009 lok Sabha polls, the SP, BSP and BJP fielded Rajput candidates and Verma was the lone candidate from OBC category. In 2009, Verma coined the slogan ‘ek dabayo teen girayo’ (press one button on EVM and defeat three), or vote for Beni Prasad verma and defeat three Rajputs instead.
In these elections, the SP had given ticket to Kirtivardhan Singh, who won the seat on SP ticket in 2004. But surprisingly Kirtivardhan joined the BJP and was now pitted against Verma. But the Akhilesh Yadav Government had sacked Kirtivardhan’s father Raja Anand Singh, who was Agriculture Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Cabinet, after his son joined the BJP leaving the SP.
The SP has given ticket to legislator Nandita Shukla, who could gain the Brahmim votes in the fight while BSP’s Akbar Ahmed Dumpy was focusing on the Dalit and Muslim voters for his success. There are around 17 lakh voters in the constituency in which Thakurs, Brahmins and Muslims have equal ratio compared to backwards and other communities.About 17 per cent of the population in Gonda is under the age of six and the average literacy rate of 58.71 per cent which is lower than the national average, the male and female literacy rates are 69.41 per cent and 47.09 per cent respectively.
Gonda is one of India’s 250 most backward districts and receives financial support from the Centre.Sucheta Kripalani had won the seat thrice in 1952, 1957 and 1967 but Anand Singh, father of Kritivardhan and SP MlA Anand Singh had won the seat four times in 1971,1980,1984 and 1989 on Congress ticket. BJP’s Braj Bhushan Saran Singh also won the seat twice in 1991 and 1999.