With elections announced in Uttar Pradesh the campaign is likely to centre around law and order and demonetisation. BJP is to make law and order a poll issue, the Samajwadi Party would attack BJP on demonetisation and question as what BJP MPs have done for the state. While for BSP both law and order and demonetisation are election issue. It will use both these issues as hammer to beat BJP and SP.
“We have our report card ready. let’s see what other parties have with them,” asks senior Samajwadi Party Rajendra Chaudhry a know Akhilesh Yadav loyalist. “Notebandi has hit the poor and the middle-class traders very hard. Prime Minister Narendra Modi says go cashless and use digital medium for money transaction. Has BJP government at Centre built that infrastructureIJ. We have done that and we will go to people telling them about our laptop distribution scheme and smart phone which we will launch in next fiscal,” he said.
As the election juggernaut will roll down from western Uttar Pradesh to eastern Uttar Pradesh the issues are bound to change colour. Seventeen districts have been most communally sensitive and these have witnessed violence in last few years. law and order remains the main issue in this area.
“Can anyone forget large scale exodus of traders from Kairana, Muzaffarnagar and areas adjoining Baghpat and ShamliIJ These are the issues BJP had raised previously and will raise them again during election,” Hukum Singh, an MP from Kairana said. “In fact, these are the main election issues here,” he said.
Elections in these areas will be held in the first phase on February 11 when 15 districts comprising 73 assembly constituencies will go to polls. The second phase, where elections will be held on February 15, will have three districts from western UP and the rest are from Rohailkhand area. At least 67 constituencies spread over in 11 districts will go to polls.
Dr SP Pandey, of Pt Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Development said that demonetisation would become an election issue as one move into central UP the region dominated by Yadavs where elections will be held in second and third phases. In some urban pockets like Bareilly, Shahajahanpur, Pilibhit and lucknow where BJP holds the sway people could be seen talking about law and order but otherwise in Moradabad, Rampur, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah and Auraiya.
Elections in third phase will be held in 12 districts comprising 69 constituencies on 19th February.
“Pandey said as fourth phase election will be held in Bundelkhand region one will see positive and negative of demonetisation here. The law and order has always been an issue in this rugged region where dacoits still are on prowl,” he said.
Twelve districts and 53 constituencies will go to polls during fourth phase which will be held on February 23.
The Fifth, Sixth and seventh phases would have crucial phase of elections as eastern UP comprising 141 constituencies including PM’s constituency Varanasi will go to polls on February 27, March 4 and March 8 respectively. This is the region which will decide as which party will wear the crown.