The Congress has emerged as a ‘vote katwa’ (vote splitter), immensely boosting the electoral prospects of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance and hurting the BJP in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in west UP that go to polls in the first phase on April 11.
Barring the Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat, Congress is busy ensuring the victory of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.
The Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the first phase are Saharanpur, Kairana, Bijnor, Baghpat, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
The Congress has fielded its candidates “tactically” in most of the western UP constituencies so that the BJP becomes the main casualty of division of votes. In Meerut, the party has fielded Harendra Agarwal, son of former chief minister Banarasi Das, against the BJP’s two-term sitting MP Rajendra Agarwal. The constituency has about 2.5 lakh votes of people from the traders’ community.
The Congress’ aim is to split this vote bank and ease the victory of Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, the BSP candidate.
In Ghaziabad, former Army Chief VK Singh may have to worry more about the Congress candidate Dolly Sharma. Suresh Bansal is the alliance candidate and Sharma’s entry may split the crucial upper caste votes that went in favour of Singh in 2014 and help SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate.
In Gautam Buddha Nagar also, Minister of State Mahesh Sharma is facing a tough fight from Surendra Singh Nagar of the BSP. Arvind Kumar Singh is the Congress candidate. The grand old party has fielded a Thakur, apparently to attract upper caste votes.
In Kairana, Congress has fielded Harinder Malik, a leader from the Jat community, apparently to dent the BJP votes.
The Congress has decided not to field candidates against RLD leaders Ajit Singh in Muzaffarnagar and Jayant Chaudhury in Baghpat Lok Sabha seats.
Though the Congress candidates are generally fielded for cutting the BJP votes, in Saharanpur, Congress candidate Imran Masood is dividing the Muslim votes as the BSP has also fielded a Muslim candidate.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath began his 2019 Lok Sabha campaign from Saharanpur on March 24 after offering prayers at Shakambari temple in the district. This was the place from where he had started his campaign for the 2017 UP Assembly election which saw the BJP win 325 of the 403 seats.
Saharanpur holds significance even for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance which has selected Deoband in Saharanpur to launch its joint election campaign in UP and hold its first joint rally there on April 7.