Eight seats in Uttar Pradesh go to the polls in first phase on Friday
In the Pilibhit constituency, the BJP has fielded Jitin Prasada, replacing two-time MP from Pilibhit in 2009 and 2019, Varun Gandhi.
Representative Image (ANI)
NEW DELHI : Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha, will witness polling on eight seats in the first phase of the general elections, which is to be held on Friday. These constituencies are Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, and Rampur.
In the Pilibhit constituency, the BJP has fielded Jitin Prasada, replacing two-time MP from Pilibhit in 2009 and 2019, Varun Gandhi. The Samajwadi Party has fielded Bhagwant Saran Gangwar, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has named Anis Ahmed Khan. In the 2019 elections, BJP leader Feroze Varun Gandhi of the BJP emerged victorious in Pilibhit, securing a notable mandate with 704,549 votes with 59.4 per cent of votes. Hemraj Verma of the Samajwadi Party (SP) garnered 448,922 votes, resulting in a victory margin of 255,627 votes.
Jitin Prasada had won the Lok Sabha polls in 2004 on a Congress ticket from the Shahjahanpur seat. In 2009, he won from Dhaurahara seat and was made Union Minister in the Congress government. Later in 2021, he joined the BJP. The Bharatiya Janata Party will be eyeing the Rampur constituency, which is considered stronghold of the Samajwadi Party as it won the seat in the 2019 general elections with a huge margin. Mohibullah Nadvi who is a cleric in a mosque at Parliament Street, New Delhi is the INDIA bloc's candidate on the SP ticket from the Rampur seat.
Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Ghanshyam Lodhi, who became the MP recently in the By-poll elections. The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Zeeshan Khan for the seat.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Samajwadi Party's veteran leader, Azam Khan, gathered 5,59,177 votes and emerged victorious from the Rampur seat. The SP had an alliance with the BSP at that time.
BJP's Jayaprada got 4,49,180 votes and Congress' Sanjay Kapoor got 35,009 votes. The Moradabad Lok Sabha constituency comprises five Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) segments: Barhapur; Kanth; Thakurdwara; Moradabad Rural; and Moradabad Nagar region.
The seat is currently represented by the Samajwadi Party's ST Hasan.
INDIA bloc candidate Ruchi Veera has been fielded on Samajwadi Party's ticket while Bharatiya Janata Party's Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh will contest from this seat.
The Moradabad seat witnessed a drama recently when two Samajwadi party candidates ST Hasan and Ruchi Veera both filed their nominations from the seat. However, SP's choice was Ruchi Veera.
In the 2019 general elections, SP's ST Hasan won the Moradabad seat, gathering 50 per cent of votes. He defeated the BJP's Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar, who gathered 551,538 votes. Congress' Imran Pratapgarhi came on third.
Earlier in the 2019 elections, proving all the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh wrong, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal(S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The alliance partners, Akhilesh Yadav's party and Mayawati Party's, won 15 seats.
Voting for phases one and two will be held on April 19 and April 26. Next, the state will once again poll in phases three and four on May 7 and May 13. The Uttar Pradesh electorate will also vote in phases five, six and seven on May 20, May 23 and June 1 respectively. The votes will be counted on June 4.
