NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
YEH HAI INDIA
CHAT

Allahabad may witness fierce contest

The lacklustre campaign in Allahabad district -- which has the distinction of sending to Parliament leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijayalakshmi Pandit and V P Singh -- belies the underlying excitement over the anticipated fierce contest on February 16.

There are no colourful posters, banners, blaring loudspeakers, graffiti or motorcades to give electioneering in this Uttar Pradesh district a festival-like fervour even though the poll is hardly 10 days away. Fortysix candidates are in the fray in the three constituencies in the district-- Allahabad, Chail (scheduled caste) and Phulpur.

Mostly abiding by the Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct, the contestants are busy in door-to-door campaigns, scrupulously avoiding the use of motorcars.

The main contest in the district will be between the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Among the 22 candidates contesting the Allahabad seat is former BJP president Dr Murli Manohar Joshi who is pitted against his student and SP candidate Shyama Charan Gupta and BSP nominee, Dr K P Srivastava who recently deserted the BJP. The Congress has fielded Dal Bahadur Singh.

In the last election, Dr Joshi defeated his nearest rival Saroj Dube (Janata Dal) by 103,523 votes.

As for Phulpur, it has always attracted attention as it was earlier represented thrice by Jawaharlal Nehru, twice by his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit. It also proved a winning ground for socialist leader Janeshwar Mishra, former prime minister V P Singh, Kamla Bahuguna and former Union minister Ram Poojan Patel.

For the ensuing election, it has 15 candidates in the fray.

Prominent among them are sitting MP Jang Bahadur Singh Patel (SP), Ram Poojan Patel (BSP), Beni Madhand (BJP) and J N Mishra (Congress).

In the last election, BSP chief Kanshi Ram was defeated by erstwhile supporter Jang Bahadur Singh Patel (SP) by a margin of 16,021 votes. Kanshi Ram has now shifted to Saharanpur.

The Chail (reserved) constituency, the major portion of which now falls under the newly-created Kaushambi district, has the lowest number of 13 candidates, as compared to 24 in the last election.

In 1996, Dr Amrit Lal Bharati (BJP) defeated his nearest rival Suresh Pasi (SP) by a margin of 31,569 votes.

This time a four-cornered contest is expected between the BJP, the SP, the BSP and the Congress.

The BJP has fielded Dr Bharti against the SP's Shilendra Kumar, the Congress's Ram Nihore Rakesh and the BSP's Inderjeet Saroj.

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram and BSP leader Mayawati have already held election meetings in the district.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report