Issues of bad roads, stray cattle, inflation pose challenges for BJP in Uttar Pradesh

With the SP, BSP and the Congress fielding Muslim candidates from the Jaunpur Sadar seat in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP nominee hopes to find a less difficult road to the assembly due to a likely division of votes.

However, issues of bad roads, daily traffic congestions in the city, inflation, unemployment and stray cattle can pose a problem for sitting BJP MLA Girish Yadav, who has been fielded again from the seat by the party. Yadav is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in the state.

Voting in Jaunpur will be held on March 7 in the last phase of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh polls. Among the major parties, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Mohammad Arshad Khan, BSP, Salim Khan and the Congress, Nadeem Javed.

Javed was elected from the seat on a Congress ticket in 2012. In the 2017 elections, he was in the fray as the candidate of the SP-Congress combine but was defeated by Yadav.

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Sitting MLA Yadav is confident the BJP's development work will lead him to victory, aided by a likely polarisation of Muslim votes.

SP candidate Mohammad Arshad Khan, who was the MLA for the SP-BSP alliance from this area in 1993, however, exudes confidence that the Muslim-Yadav vote bank and his old well-wishers will work in his favour. BSP's Salim Khan is trying to strengthen his fight by uniting his traditional dalit vote bank and the Muslim community in this region.

Javed, the Congress contestant, on the other hand, feels party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's 'ladki hun, lad sakti hun' campaign and support from the educated sections and the youth will propel him to victory once again.

Jaunpur district is adjacent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi. There are more than 3.5 lakh voters in the Jaunpur Sadar Assembly seat, and the number of Muslim voters is over 90,000, as per party estimates. The seat has a considerable number of Kshatriya voters, along with those of the Vaishya and the Maurya communities.

A local businessman, Iqbal Ahmed, claimed that the BJP is afraid of a repeat of the equation seen in 1996. That year, Afzal Ahmed from the SP and Haji Mohammad Taufiq from the BSP were in the fray, and against them, the BJP had fielded Surendra Pratap Singh, hoping to win on the support of Hindu voters in the seat. The BJP's strategy fell flat and Afzal Ahmed won.

Vijay Yadav of Jaunpur city claimed he would not vote for the BJP candidate even though he is from the same community. "We will not vote for BJP candidate Girish Yadav because many people in our family are in government jobs and the Samajwadi Party has promised to reinstate the old pension system. If that happens, the future of our family will be secured. So, the vote of our entire family will go to the SP," he said.

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Sadiq Khan, who deals in batteries at the main market of the city, said the business of small traders has come to a standstill under the BJP government. "Our business has been ruined due to the Covid-19 epidemic and the GST has forced us to think about closing our shops. Our entire family and friends will vote for the SP," he said.

Ramji Madanwal, who runs a breakfast joint at the Chaharsu intersection, is happy with the work of the state government.

He said it has become easier for him to run his business as the law and order situation has improved and electricity comes round the clock. The roads of the city, however, are bad and lead to problems of traffic congestions that affects businesses, Madanwal said.

Preeti Gupta of Urdu Bazar, Rani Tiwari of Olandganj, and Seema Singh, an employee at the district hospital, said they have made up their minds to vote for the BJP due to the improved law and order situation in the state.

Singh felt that although the government is doing good work for women, the situation will improve if inflation reduces a little

Malku Ram, a farmer, raised the issue of stray cattle, and said he is forced to spend the nights guarding his crops in the fields. It will bring relief to farmers if the government made some arrangements to solve the problem of stray cattle, he said.

BJP candidate Girish Yadav told PTI that in his tenure, a lot of work has been done in the city, including that on the sewer network, the ring road outside the city and also on beautification. Work has been done to get people's ration cards made in rural areas and to provide houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, he said.

Yadav said if he won the election this time, he would work to build a flyover to resolve the issue of traffic jams caused by railway crossings in the city. Apart from this, the construction work of the four-lane road between Jaunpur Shahganj and Ambedkar Nagar will also be expedited, he said.

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Samajwadi Party candidate Arshad Khan said that after winning the election, he will open schools in all the panchayats of the area so that students don't have to travel to the city to study.

Apart from this, the Samajwadi pension, free rations and other facilities announced by the party will be implemented, he said.

Congress candidate Nadeem Javed said that the biggest problem of Jaunpur is the migration of the youth for employment. "We will try to provide means of employment to the youth in Jaunpur itself so that they do not have to go anywhere," he said.

BSP candidate Salim Khan, a builder by profession, said Mayawati developed Uttar Pradesh during her four terms. "This time too, after she becomes the chief minister, Uttar Pradesh will be put on the path of development, as will Jaunpur," he said.

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