After losing all the six seats of the Raebareli district which comprises five Assembly segments of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Parliamentary constituency, Congress made no serious bid to retain the supremacy which the party maintained till a decade ago.
While Sonia so far remained away from campaigning, including her own Parliament constituency, her daughter Priyanka Gandhi too chose to keep a low profile this time with just addressing a single meeting in Raebareli.
During last Assembly elections, Priyanka almost covered the entire constituency but her presence failed to attract voters and the party lost all the seats.
In this election, instead of depending on Priyanka, the party has decided to retain its fort with the help of votebank of its alliance partner Samajwadi Party; though on two of the constituencies, Congress also field its candidates along with the SP candidates.
In Unchahar Assembly constituency, Minister in Akhilesh’s Cabinet Manoj Pandey, who is also sitting MlA, is pitted against alliance partner Congress’s candidate Ajay Pal Singh.
On this seat, last time runner up Utkrisht Singh of the BSP, who lost by just 2,000 votes had shifted his loyalty and is contesting on BJP ticket.
The BSP has fielded Vivek Vikram Singh while the RlD also gave ticket to Radhey Shyam making the battle more challenging.
Similarly in Sareni, the SP’s sitting MlA Devendra Pratap Singh is facing opposition from alliance partner candidate Ashok Kumar Singh, who won in 1996 and 2007 Assembly polls.
They both are facing close contest from Dhirendra Bhahur Singh of BJP and Thakur Prasad of BSP.
Bachrawa reserved Assembly will also witness very close contest as last time winner Ram lal Akela was denied SP ticket and is contesting on RlD symbol this time.
Susheel Pasi, whose candidature was withdrawn by the Congress is fighting as independent.
He was runner up last time.
BSP candidate Shyam Sunder won election in 1996 and runner up in 2002 while BJP fielded Ram Naresh Rawat. The Congress has now fielded Shahab Saran, son of Shiv Darshan who remained party MlA for four times, since 1980 till 1993.
In Harchandpur, the Congress fielded Rakesh Singh against Kanchan lodhi of BJP and Manish Kumar Singh of BSP. last time winner of SP, Surendra Vikram Singh failed to get Party ticket. In Salon (SC) seat, the battle is between Suresh Chowdhary of Congress, Dal Bhahur of BJP and Braj lal Pasi of BSP.
In this constituency also SP dropped its last time winner Asha Kishore due to alliance.
In Raebareli Sadar seat, Congress Aditi Singh is confident of her victory as the seat was rested by her father Akhilesh Singh for the last five-term. Akhilesh won the seat three times on Congress ticket, one as independent and last time on Peace Party ticket. On this seat, BJP fielded Anita Srivastava and Mohd Shahab Khan is contesting on BSP ticket.