Kairana bypoll -- a key player in the run up to 2019 LS polls

May 27, 2018 12:21

Kairana constituency in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pardesh has virtually assumed the dimension of a strategic player in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Kairana bypoll, slated for tomorrow, will also see a joint opposition taking on the ruling BJP.

Located around 630 km from capital city of Lucknow, the Lok Sabha constituency has five assembly segments namely Shamli, Thana Bhawan and Kairana in Shamli district, and Gangoh and Nakur in Saharanpur district. There are nearly 17 lakh voters in the constituency with a significant number of Muslims, Jats and Dalit voters.

RLD party worker Abdul Hakeem Khan said he had never seen an election in which the ruling party was being challenged by a joint opposition.

"This is the beauty of our democracy," he said.

The constituency fell vacant after the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka Singh is now the party's candidate for the bypoll. She is fighting Rashtriya Lok Dal's Tabassum Hasan, who is supported by the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The opposition hopes that by consolidating anti-BJP votes, they will repeat the success of the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bye-elections, where the ruling party suffered an unexpected defeat.

The withdrawal of candidature of Lok Dal candidate Kanwar Hasan from the fray and his joining of the RLD has only added to the opposition's confidence.

The ruling BJP, on the other hand, is making extra efforts to retain the seat to try and send a strong message to voters, party cadres as well as the opposition parties -- that the drubbing in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bye-elections was an aberration, and that it was still strong in western UP.

"The results of the May 28 bypolls may set the tone and tenor for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Rajesh Kumar Saini, manager of a hotel on the busy Shamli-Panipat road, said.

Khan exuded confidence that "Kairana's daughter-in-law Tabassum Hasan will defeat Kairana's daughter (Mriganka Singh)."

-- PTI

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