BJP banks on 'Hindutva', SP on caste equations in fifth phase of UP polls

As voting begins for the fifth and final phase of elections for 61 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will be banking on 'Hindutva' while its main rival Samajwadi Party (SP) on caste equations and support of the Muslims in the fifth phase of , which included Ayodhya.

Sunday's polling will also seal the fate of four UP ministers, including deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is seeking re-election from Sirathu seat in Kaushambi district.

The old Congress bastion of Amethi will also go to the polls in this phase of polling.

Barring a few seats, where the BSP and Congress candidates had made the contest three-cornered or multi-cornered, the Sunday's contest was expected to be mainly between the BJP and SP.

Read | Uttar Pradesh Polls: Fifth phase of voting on February 27; 692 candidates in fray for 61 seats

BJP, whose leaders sought to credit the party for the under construction Ram Temple in Ayodhya, would be hoping that the issue along with the state government's initiatives to beautify important Hindu religious centres like Chitrakoot and Prayagraj, would prove to be a winner in this phase.

"Our government has undertaken several initiatives to renovate Hindu religious places.....the visitors are able to see the changes whether it is Chitrakoot or Prayagraj," said a senior BJP leader here while speaking to DH. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who was accompanied by several prominent seers, conducted a roadshow in Ayodhya on Thursday during which he also listed the works undertaken by his government to beautify Hindu religious places in the state.

Besides Keshav Prasad Maurya, the other UP ministers, whose fate would be sealed on Sunday, included Siddharth Nath Singh, Nand Gopal Nandi and Ramapati Shastri. Maurya was locked in a tough fight with SP's Pallavi Patel, a 'Kurmi', who were in good numbers in the constituency. BJP had swept the region in the 2017 assembly polls winning 38 seats followed by the SP which had managed to win 15 seats.

The SP, which has tied with smaller, caste based outfits, would be hoping that its electoral strategy of weaving a winning caste combination was able to get support of the electorate. The party also hoped that the perceived resentment among the people, especially the farmers, over the stray cattle menace, would hurt the BJP's electoral prospects.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav would also be hoping for the support of the Muslims in this phase, who were a deciding factor on around a dozen seats. Akhilesh and his alliance partners, including Krishna Patel of Apna Dal (Kamneravadi), Om Prakash Rajbhar, president of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), had addressed dozens of election meetings in the region going to the polls on Sunday.

Also Read | In Ayodhya and elsewhere in UP, desertion in BJP's Dalit-OBC support

Although Congress remains a fringe player in the electoral battle, the party hopes to not only retain the two seats it had won in the 2017 polls but also increase its tally. According to the political analysts, Congress candidates were in fight on at least half a dozen seats in Amethi, it one time bastion, Prayagraj and Pratapgarh districts.

BSP, which had fared miserably in the previous assembly polls in the region, has pinned its hopes on the support of the Dalits, especially the 'Jatavs', and the Muslims along with the Brahmins. The party has fielded a large number of Muslim candidates, especially in the constituencies where the community was a deciding factor.

Controversial former UP minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who was in the fray from his traditional stronghold of Kunda in Pratapgarh as an independent candidate, will hope to create a new record of electoral wins as he has been representing the seat since 1993.

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