Former BJP president and chairman of the Public Account Committee of Parliament Murli Manohar Joshi is facing a tough battle against sitting Congress leader and Union Minister for Coal Sriprakash Jaiswal on the Kanpur lok Sabha seat where polling will be held on April 30.
There is a direct contest between Joshi, present MP from Varanasi and Jaiswal, though other candidates of the BSP, the SP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in the fray, but their presence is not felt in the constituency.
Once called the Manchester of India, Kanpur is now reeling under acute problems of unemployment and power scarcity. All the industries have closed down and no new industry has come up yet, though politicians promise during every election to bring the city on the industrial map of the country.
Kanpur, now known from IIT and a Gun factory, lacks proper roads and drainage system, besides, pollution in Ganga has always made political headlines in the country. Jaiswal, a former Mayor of Kanpur, is the sitting MP since 1999 and he explains that his main job is to serve this city.
However, the Coal scam has given a negative propaganda for Jaiswal, but he denied any involvement in the allotment of the coal mines.
In contrast, BJP candidate Joshi is facing Opposition from his own partymen. BJP MlA Satish Mahana, who is eyeing lok Sabha seat this time, is not supporting Joshi. In an attempt to project a unified scene, senior leaders like Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharati and others have campaigned in Kanpur.
Joshi, who started his political career by winning seat from Uttarakhand is shifting his political base regularly and after winning twice from Allahabad, had shifted to Varanasi in 2009 elections.
The SP had earlier fielded TV star Raju Srivastava from the seat, but had to change him after he switched over to the BJP and now an old timer trader leader Surendra Mohan Agarwal is the candidate. The BSP has given ticket to Salim Ahmed while for the AAP, Dr Mahmood Husain Rehmani is the nominee and for All India Trinamool Congress Anil Awasthi is in the fray.
There are a total of 21 candidates in the fray for Kanpur constituency, where there is mixed population of Baniyas, Brahmins and Muslims holding the key. There is also a sizable number of Sikhs and backward voters.
Kanpur has always been a pro-congress seat since independence and since 1999, Jaiswal is representing it.
Independent candidate SM Banerjee was the only leader who represented the seat four times -- from 1957 to 1977. CPI (M) Subhashani Ali had also won the seat once in 1989 while BJP’s Jagat Vir Singh Drona won the seat for the party thrice from 1991 to 1999. Subhashani this time is contesting from Barrackpore seat in West Bengal on CPI(M) ticket.
In the 2009 elections, Jaiswal got 41.92 per cent of votes against his nearest BJP candidate Satish Mahana, who bagged 38.23 per cent of votes. In 2004, the Minister polled 34.12 per cent of votes while BJP’s Satyadev Pachauri received 33.21 per cent of votes.