Not long ago, Etawah constituency, the hometown of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, was considered the focal point of Uttar Pradesh politics. However, in the 2017 UP Assembly elections, the SP lost two of the three assembly seats of its bastion to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amid the Modi wave. This time, the SP will put up a strong contest against the incumbent BJP to get back its bastion.
The three assembly constituencies in Etawah district – Jaswantnagar, Etawah Sadar and Bhartana (reserved) – will vote in the third phase of UP assembly elections on February 20.
TICKET DISTRIBUTION
Amid the SP’s battle against the BJP, some locals and veteran leaders have voiced their concerns on the ticket distribution. Some feel it might be a calculated move by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, while others feel it may hurt the party’s prospects.
A veteran SP leader who didn’t wish to be named said, “There is a close fight on Etawah Sadar and Bhartana assembly seat 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 fielded Sarita Bhadauria from Etawah Sadar, while the SP has fielded Sarvesh Shakya. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has given ticket to Kuldeep Gupta ‘Santu’, who had contested on SP ticket in 2017.
In the 2017 UP assembly elections, the BJP’s Sarita Bhadauria had won the Sadar seat, while BJP’s Savitri Katheria had won Bhartana with a small margin. On the other hand, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger brother and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav had defeated the BJP candidate by a huge margin in the Jaswant Nagar seat, which is considered the strongest seat of the SP.
The SP has once again given the ticket from Jaswantnagar to Shivpal Yadav, while the BJP has fielded Vivek Shakya and the BSP has given ticket to VP Singh. Shivpal is contesting on the SP’s symbol this time and his party has forged a pre-poll alliance with the SP. As per some senior SP leaders, the party wants Shivpal to win with the biggest margin in the state, and have pressed both PSPL and SP workers into action.
THE JASWANT NAGAR SEAT
The Jaswant Nagar Assembly seat has been dominated by the SP since 1967. In 1967, Mulayam Singh Yadav reached the UP assembly for the first time after winning from the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) from Jaswantnagar assembly seat. In the 1969 assembly elections, Chaudhary Vishambhar Singh from Congress and Balram Singh Yadav of Congress in 1980 had defeated Mulayam Singh Yadav. However, after 1985, no one could defeat Mulayam. Mulayam Singh Yadav was elected as MLA seven times from this seat. In 1996, he left this seat for Shivpal Singh Yadav, after which Shivpal Yadav was elected as an MLA for five consecutive terms from the SP till the 2017 assembly elections. Currently, there are 3,91,630 voters in Jaswant Nagar, including 2,09,538 men, 1,80,741 women, 18 transgender and 1,333 service voters.
ETAWAH SADAR
The first MLA from Etawah Sadar in 1952 was Congress’s Lotanram. Different parties won this seat, but after the SP was formed, the seat remained with the party for almost 23 years. In the 2007 bypoll, Mahendra Singh Rajput contested from the BSP after leaving the SP and won with a margin of about 5,000 votes. He won again in 2009, on a BSP ticket. In the 2012 assembly elections, the seat came back to the SP, in 2017, the seat went to the BJP as Sarita Bhadauria defeated SP candidate Kuldeep Gupta by 17,342 votes. Etawah Sadar seat has 4,04,763 voters, which includes 2,16,452 men, 1,87,171 women, 5 transgender and 1,135 service voters.
BHARTANA
Meherban Singh Yadav from the Congress was the first MLA from this seat in 1951. Over the years, it saw MLAs from various parties, with Mulayam Singh Yadav winning the seat in 2007. In 2012, SP’s Sukhdevi Verma was elected the MLA. In 2017, however, BJP candidate Savitri Katheria won from this seat, defeating SP’s Kamlesh Katheria with 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. The BJP has fielded Dr. Siddharth Shankar Dohre, while the SP has fielded Raghavendra Kumar Gautam and BSP has fielded Kamlesh Ambedkar from the seat.
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