Having firmly positioned himself as the sole challenger to the ruling BJP after the polling for two phases in the ongoing Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav faces the daunting task of wresting seats in the Yadav bastion of Etawah. In the 2017 state polls, the SP had lost several seats in the region to the then buoyant BJP.
Etawah -the hometown of the first family of Samajwadi Party, has been a focal point of UP politics for three decades. But in 2017, the Samajwadi Party suffered major political setback after it lost two of the three Assembly seats in its bastion to the BJP. Earlier in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the SP had also lost Etawah seat to the BJP. In 2022, the SP seems to struggle to wrest the seats from the BJP that it lost in 2017. The three assembly constituencies in Etawah district - Jaswantnagar, Etawah Sadar and Bhartana (Reserved) - will vote in the third phase of Assembly elections on February 20.
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia chief and Akhilesh's uncle Shivpal Yadav is contesting the election on the symbol of Samajwadi Party. Amid the SP’s battle against the BJP, some locals and veteran leaders have voiced their concerns on ticket distribution. Some feel it might be a calculated move by the SP chief, while others feel that it might hurt the party’s prospects.
A senior SP leader said, "There is a close fight on Etawah Sadar and Bhartana Assembly seats between the SP and BJP. Ticket distribution might be an issue on the Sadar seat, as it has not gone down well with some local SP leaders.”
The BJP has retained Sarita Bhadauria from Etawah Sadar, while the SP has fielded Sarvesh Shakya and Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Kuldeep Gupta ‘Santu’, who had contested on SP ticket in 2017. In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP’s Sarita Bhadauria had won the Sadar seat, while BJP’s Savitri Katheria had won Bhartana by a small margin. On the other hand, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger brother and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) chief Shivpal Yadav had defeated the BJP candidate by a huge margin in Jaswant Nagar seat. The Jaswant Nagar Assembly seat has been dominated by the Yadav clan since 1967.
In 1967, Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected to the UP Assembly for the first time after winning on a ticket of Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) from Jaswantnagar. In the 1969 Assembly poll, Chaudhary Vishambhar Singh of Congress and Balram Singh Yadav of Congress in 1980 had defeated Mulayam Singh. But from 1985 onwards, Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected from this seat seven times. In 1996, he left the seat for his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, after which the latter was elected as an MLA for five consecutive terms till the 2017 Assembly elections.
The first MLA from Etawah Sadar in 1952 was Congress’s Lotanram. Different parties won this seat. The Samajwadi Party was set up in 1992 and the party retained this seat for almost 23 years. In the 2012 state polls, the SP won from this seat and in 2017, the BJP wrested this seat from the SP and Sarita Bhadauria defeated SP candidate Kuldeep Gupta.
From Bharthana , Meherban Singh Yadav of the Congress was the first MLA in 1951. Over the years, it saw MLAs from various parties, with Mulayam Singh Yadav winning it in 2007. In 2012, SP’s Sukhdevi Verma was elected MLA. In 2017, however, BJP candidate Savitri Katheria won from this seat, defeating SP’s Kamlesh Katheria by a margin of about 2,000 votes. Maharaj Singh Yadav, a close aide of Mulayam Sigh Yadav, won this seat for a maximum of five consecutive times. This time round, the BJP has fielded Dr Siddharth Shankar Dohre, while SP has given ticket to Raghavendra Kumar Gautam and the BSP has fielded Kamlesh Ambedkar from the seat.