Cantt Assembly seats become force to reckon with in UP polls

 Once considered politically dormant entity, half-a-dozen assembly constituencies in the Cantonment areas of Uttar Pradesh have now become a force to reckon with.

Of the 13 Cantonment assembly seats in the country, six are in Uttar Pradesh which various political parties want to grab.

Apart from state capital Lucknow, five districts in UP have a Cantonment assembly constituency each. These are Meerut, Kanpur, Agra, Bareilly and Varanasi.

Going by the election results since 1991, voters in most of the Cantonment assembly seats have shown preference towards BJP.

But, in 2007 assembly elections, the saffron chariot met with resistance from BSP supremo Mayawati, whose social engineering formula queered its pitch.

Mayawati's BSP made its presence felt in Agra and Bareilly Cantonments, while the BJP was able to capture the cantonment assembly seats of Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur and Meerut.

In 2012 assembly polls (post-delimitation), the BJP bastion of Lucknow Cantonment fell to the Congress, with Rita Bahuguna Joshi defeating three-time sitting MLA Suresh Chandra Tiwari.

Agra Cantonment (SC) saw BSP scoring a hat-trick, while Bareilly Cantonment saw the advent of BJP for the first time.

The BJP, however, continued its dominance in Meerut and Varanasi Cantonment seats (winning both for the 6th time) and Kanpur Cantonment (winning it for the 5th time).

The prestigious Lucknow Cantonment seat has hogged media limelight in the ongoing UP assembly polls with SP supremo's 'chhoti bahu' Aparna Yadav challenging sitting MLA Rita Bahuguna fielded by the BJP.In 2012, Rita had won the polls contesting on a Congress ticket.

In Varanasi Cantonment constituency, which goes to polls in the last lap on March 8, Saurabh Srivastava (son of sitting MLA Jyotsana Srivastava) is contesting on a BJP ticket, and is being challenged by Ajoy Mukherjee (CPI), Anil Srivastava (Congress), Rijwan Ahmad (BSP) and 20 other candidates.

The other cantonment assembly constituencies located throughout the length and breadth of the country are Dehradun Cantonment (Uttarakhand), Jalandhar Cantonment (Punjab), Secunderabad Cantonment (SC) (Andhra Pradesh), Ambala Cantonment (Haryana), Jabalpur Cantonment (Madhya Pradesh), Pune Cantonment (SC) (Maharashtra) and Delhi Cantonment.
The Head Quarters of the Army's Central Command, which was established in 1862, is located in Lucknow.

Meerut Cantonment was established by the British East India Company in 1803 after the Battle of Laswari.

The first war of independence in 1857 started from 'Kali Paltan' in Meerut Cantonment, and Indian soldiers stationed here actively participated in the rebellion.

Agra Cantonment was established in 1805, while Bareilly Kanpur and Varanasi Cantonments were established in 1811.