Some seats too close for comfort in UP
No one can predict the winners and losers in these areas
Winning and losing may be part of the electoral contest but defeat by a wafer thin margin is certainly very painful for the losing candidate, though it also keeps up his hopes of avenging his defeat.
The winner is uneasy as he knows that even a minor slip in his vote percentage could turn his victory into a loss. It is simply too close for comfort.
In the 2007 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, there were 25 seats, which had witnessed close fights where the winning margin was less than one thousand. At some seats it was even less than one hundred.
These are the seats where both the winners and the losers stand a chance of scraping through this time and no one wants to make predictions as far these seats are concerned.
Of the seats where the margin of victory was less than one thousand, the BSP, the ruling party, had won nine seats while its closest rival the Samajwadi Party (SP) had also emerged victorious on as many seats.
The Congress and the BJP had won with two seats each while one seat was bagged by mafia don turned politician D P Yadav, father of Vikas Yadav, who has been serving life sentence in Nitish Katara murder case.
Significantly the BSP also topped the list of losers on these 25 closely contested seats. It was runner–up on ten seats followed by the SP, which finished second on nine seats. The BJP emerged runner–up on four seats while the Congress stood second on two seats.
On two seats – Jalesar and Bhinga – the winning margin was even less than one hundred. The BJP’s Kuber Singh had defeated the BSP’s Ranveer Singh by a margin of only 72 votes while Daddan Mishra, former UP minister, had scraped past Congress’s Mohammad Aslam at Bhinga by 91 votes.
On two other seats the victory margin was less than two hundred. One of the winners was D P Yadav, who had won from Sahaswan seat in Budaon district by 109 votes.
Close fights were also witnessed in several other constituencies as well. There were 91 Assembly constituencies in all where the difference between the winners and losers was less than three thousand.
On 26 seats, the victory margin was above one thousand but less than two thousand, while on 40 other seats, it was above two thousand but less than three thousand.
On a majority of these seats, the contest was mainly between BSP and SP. “Both the parties will try to win the seats which they had lost by thin margins,” said an SP leader.
“We have chalked out a plan for these closely contested seats…the candidate, who had lost last time, was asked to continue to work among the electorate there and keep in close touch with them…we have also been impressing upon our voters to come out in large numbers and cast their votes on the polling day,” the leader said.
The BSP is also leaving no stone unturned to bag the seats, it had lost last time by wafer thin margin. “It is crucial for us to win these seats this time,” said a BSP leader.
The same applies to the BJP and the Congress as well.
The Congress is focusing on Tiloi seat, which is part of the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency represented by Rahul Gandhi, which it had lost last time by merely 72 votes.
These seats may again witness close contests this time as both the winner and loser will go all out.
It remains to be seen who among them turns out to be lucky.
