Surya Pratap Shahi is one of the tallest leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since the party emerged strongly in the State politics after Ram Temple movement in 1990s.
Also, he is among some bigwigs of the party like Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra, Om Prakash Singh and some others.
Shahi’s reputation received a major jolt in Deoria politics in Gorakhpur region of Purvanchal (eastern UP) as Om Prakash Singh in Mirzapur in Varanasi belt when both these heavyweights had tasted defeats in 2012 at their home turfs of Pathardeva and Chunar respectively.
Despite fighting strongly in last poll, Shahi lost to Shakir Ali narrowly.
However, he won all three elections from Kasia before the carving out of Kushi Nagar district from Deoria.
As a young leader, he surprised everyone winning during post-Indira assassination sympathy wave in 1985. He has defeated strong ex-Cabinet Minister of the BJP Government and former State chief SP’s Shakir Ali.
But, during the last five years, the political scenario has been changed a lot. “Nothing was done concrete for revival of all closed sugar factories during Akhilesh regime but we’ve made serious attempts to help the region march towards progress boosting agro-based industries and if our Government comes to power, we would, definitely, do our best to revive sugar factories for betterment of large number of sugarcane growers of the district,” said Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, an MP from Deoria parliamentary seat.
“There is a saffron wave in entire Purvanchal as it was seen during lok Sabha polls in 2014 as I visited different parts of Deoria and found that this time, we’re leading in all seven seats there,” he added.
The last election saw domination of the SP winning five out of seven while rest of two was shared by the BJP and
the Congress.
In Patterdeva, Shahi is facing tough contest from sitting SP MlA Shakir Ali and Neeraj of BSP while in Deoria, sitting BJP MlA Janmeijai Singh’s fate depends largely on Modi’s popularity though he is facing challenges from SP’s JP Jaiswal and BSP’s Abhay Nath Tripathi.
“Since the death of former popular MP Mohan Singh in 2013, the base of SP has weakened in Deoria,” said a businessman from Bankata Bazar laxman Prasad Gupta.
In Rampur Kharkhana, sitting SP MlA Fasiha Manzar Ghazala’s journey is no cakewalk as he is facing strong contest from Kamlesh Shukla of BJP and Rajeev Kumar Singh of BSP while in Bhatpar Rani, Ashutosh Upadhya who defeated Independent Sabha Kunwar in the last poll is facing stiff competition from his opponents.
In Barhaj, the land of great saint Deoraha Baba, the SP has denied ticket to sitting MlA Prem Prakash Singh fielding Purnendu Tiwari alias PD Tiwari. The BJP’s Suresh Tiwari and BSP’s Murli Manohar Jaiswal are giving good resistance.
In Salempur (SC) too, the SP denied ticket to sitting MlA Manbodh and fielded Vijay laxmi Gautam.