Troubled Times In Store For BJP in Agra Region, Party Managers However Hopeful Of Cruising Through
Agra, January 18 (TNA) The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party is locked in a battle with its own former and present royalists. Candidates whose names have been announced in the Braj prant are facing a stiff challenge from those aspirants who have been denied the party tickets. The Agarwals of Agra, are in a rage. Several groups have decided to boycott the elections.
From the Agra North seat, the sitting MLA Purushottam Khandelwal is facing a stiff challenge from the powerful and numerically stronger Agarwal community. Of the nine assembly seats not one Agarwal has been given a ticket.
In Fatehpur Sikri assembly constituency the official BJP candidate Choudhary Babu Lal, is also facing challenges from rivals within his own party. The story is the same in Etmadpur where a recent defector Dharam Pal Singh has got the ticket leaving loyalists high and dry. In Mathura, there are dissensions in at least two assembly constituencies, particularly Goverdhan.
In Firozabad two tempers are running high as a defectors are being fielded, ignoring the long time loyalists. But the party functionaries here are supremely confident of ironing out all opposition and challenges. Babu Lal and Dharampal today filed their nomination papers. Former governor of Uttarakhand Baby Rani Maurya who will file her papers on January 19, feels all will be sorted out and the party will work as a united outfit to win the elections.
Even as the mercury dipped further to intensify the continuing cold wave, the heat generated by the election euphoria, ahead of the assembly polls, has brought welcome relief to the people on the streets.
The mist shrouding announcement of lists of candidates by different political parties, has now dissipated. The field is all set and the early dissenters have either backtracked or have been offered palliatives.
Agra goes to polls on February 10. Though nomination process started on January 14, so far no papers have been filed. Local poll observers see an intense three cornered contest. The Bhartiya Janata Party is pitted against the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, though the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are also in the fray.
In neighbouring Mathura and Firozabad districts, the choice of candidates is helping the BJP and the groundswell of support has surprised the poll managers of the party.
For the nine assemble seats in Agra, the caste and religious formations have already been drawn with little scope for breach of past voting patterns. The BJP however is hoping that a sizeable segment from each vote bank will deviate and support its candidates, because of the good performance of the Yogi Adityanath government, as can be assessed from the spectacular numbers of beneficiaries of welfare schemes.
The Samajwadi Party is buoyed up as reports suggest that the Muslim votes are not expected to split this time. In the past the fragmentation of minority votes has helped the main party in the contest. “Initially BSP supremo was seen a little detached and indifferent to state assembly polls, causing fears that the Dalit votes could go to the main opposition party, but Bahenji was not sitting idle, but was doing her electoral homework, as is clearly evident from the candidates being fielded.
The BSP will definitely put up a good show this time and prove the game spoiler for Akhilesh Yadav,” said experienced poll watcher Nandan Shrotriya. BJP supporter and a river activist Dr Devashish Bhattacharya said “all the nine seats will go to the BJP with bigger margins. The josh is high and the Hindutva Tsunami will sweep all obstacles, once the campaign picks up momentum.”