@dheerajupadhyay
Lucknow: The battle lines are drawn in Uttar Pradesh between the two main political rivals Bhartiya Janta party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state. The fierce political battle is set to intensify in the coming days in the eastern UP, popularly known as ‘Purvanchal’. After consolidating in Varanasi, the BJP is now eyeing Azamgarh, another pivotal district of eastern UP, to embolden its vote bank in the region.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav is doing tit for tat, as far as the political campaign is concerned. Akhilesh held a big rally in Gorakhpur another political nerve centre of the Purvanchal, by flagging off the third phase of the party’s ‘ Samajwadi Vijay Yatra’ at the same time when Union home minister Amit Shah and CM Yogi was laying the foundation of a university in the former parliamentary constituency at Azamgarh.
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The political importance of Purvanchal can be gauged from the fact that within a span of 20 days, PM Modi is visiting the region third time on Tuesday to inaugurate, UP CM Yogi Adityanath’s dream project , the 340 km long ‘Purvanchal expressway’ while the former BJP President Amit Shah too was there in Azamgarh on Saturday.
Purvanchal contributes around 33% of seats to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly of 403. It has 164 assembly seats across 28 districts. In 2017 state elections, BJP bagged 115 out of 164 seats, whereas SP had got 17, while BSP got just 14, Congress- two and others 16 including SBSP and ApnaDal.
Purvanchal’s districts like Varanasi, Jaunpur, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Maharajganj, Sant Kabirnagar, Basti, Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Ballia, Siddharthnagar, Chandauli, Ayodhya, Gonda, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Sultanpur, Amethi, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Ambedkarnagar hold the key to change the political direction of the state in upcoming 2022 UP elections.
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Although, BJP is trying its best to offset the likely losses of western UP due to the ongoing farmers’ protest; by aligning with smaller caste groups like Apna Dal of Anupriya Patel, and Sanjay Nishad’s NISAHD Party for winning eastern UP. Whereas, SP Chief, Akhilesh Yadav is all set to increase his tally in the west by forging an alliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and holding caste-based conclaves.
