Uttar Pradesh all set for a big fight

While on one hand the polling would decide the stature of BJP’s poster boy Varun Gandhi, who is contesting from Pilibhit, it would also ascertain whether his mother and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi would be able to enter the 15th Lok Sabha from the new and unknown turf of Aonla.

Pilibhit is in the focus of attention following Varun’s alleged inflammatory remarks against Muslims and the subsequent slapping of NSA on him by the UP government. Though the NSA was held invalid by the Advisory Board, the state government has sent an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Another interesting and no-holds barred battle is being witnessed in Rampur, where Samajwadi Party nominee and film actress Jayaprada is pitted against Congress candidate Noor Bano and BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. For the first time perhaps Jayaprada, the sitting MP from Rampur, is feeling the heat as her own senior party colleague Azam Khan has openly opposed her candidature and asked his supporters to vote for the Congress.

Campaigning in Rampur had been marred by unsavoury exchanges between Azam and Amar Singh and their tussle even spilled on to the streets.

The final phase would also test the electoral skills of the mercurial Indian cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin, who is in the fray from Muslim dominated Moradabad seat. A member of the Rahul Gandhi’s ‘youth brigade’ and Union minister Jitin Prasad is battling it out on a new turf in Dhaurahara.

SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew Dharmendra Yadav and BSP nominee DP Yadav, the father of the main accused in the Nitish Katara murder case Vikas Yadav also trying their luck from Budaon seat.