UP Elections: Parties go all guns blazing in Bundelkhand

The OBC-Dalit dominated region of Jalaun, where BSP had won its first Assembly seat three decades ago, was witness to high decibel poll rally and door-to-door campaign by Mayawati and Priyanka Gandhi on Monday. The BSP supremo slammed Congress as "strongest casteist" and assuring her voters that, contrary to the perception of her party lying low, she is fighting with full might to form a government in Uttar Pradesh.

Home Minister Amit Shah and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also addressed public meetings in Jhansi and Hamirpur respectively

With the second phase of polling concluding today, all the main parties have focussed their attention on Bundelkhand, which sends 19 legislators to UP Assembly. Last time, the BJP had won all the seats but 2022 polls appear to be turning triangular in the region. Polls will be held in the region in the third and fourth phase on February 20 and February 23.

While the main contest seems boiling down between the BJP and the SP in the region, BSP is definitely not out, but even its supporters wonder why the campaign this time is so low profile. BSP's core voters, Jatavs, however, remain firmly behind the party.

Also read: In first two phases of polls, people have cooled down Yogi’s ‘garmi’, says Akhilesh Yadav

Addressing a public rally in Hamirpur, Akhilesh Yadav claimed a "miracle of change" will happen in Bundelkhand and told them that he hopes that electorates will not come into the trap of BJP.

"What did the double engine government give you. After giving full support when you look back ask whether they told a lie or not?," Yadav asked, reminding how BJP won big in all elections in Bundelkhand since 2014.

At Priyanka's door-to-door campaign in Maudaha in Hamirpur and Kalpi in Jalaun, slogans like 'Bina Bole Garibi Par Waar, 72 hazaar (Targeting poverty without making much noise. Rs 72,000 in the poor's account) were heard.

While many in the constituency said they do not really recall when was there a Congress leader here, Priyanka, who began her campaign by offering flowers to statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, was greeted by Congress workers with posters of late Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

Mayawati, whose party had won seven of 19 Assembly seats in 2012 Assembly polls, told her voters in Orai on Monday not to fall for rumours like BSP is not fighting this election seriously and reminded them of "good governance" given by BSP in the state after she had become CM in 2007.

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Seeking to counter the perception of being soft on BJP, Mayawati repeatedly attacked BJP's 'acche din' slogan, coined first in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. While she intriguingly called Congress "casteist", BJP was to her "pro-capitalist". She also gave a veiled reminder of "goonda raj" criticism of the previous SP regimes.

"BSP is fighting the polls with 'poori takat' to form a government with full majority so that once again the 'acche din' of BSP governance can come back," she said. Seeking to project a caste-neutral face, Mayawati said BSP has given tickets to candidates on the basis of population representation in the region.

Jalaun region was a key experiment zone of late Kanshi Ram's Bahujan politics and locals recall Mayawati cycling in streets to meet the cadres and strengthen the BSP. Over the course of time, BSP's vote bank got depleted. Sending a word of caution, Mayawati told her electorates that they will have to understand why it is necessary for all of them to vote for the BSP, which works for their welfare, instead of Congress, BJP, SP or other rival parties.

She said that the Congress did not even honour Ambedkar with the Bharat Ratna and did not recognise the work of BSP ideologue Kanshiram.

"When the Congress is in power, it is not bothered about Dalits, advisasis and other backward communities but starts the drama about working for them when they are out of power,” the BSP chief alleged.

Also Read | Elderly woman comes in ambulance from hospital to caste her vote in Saharanpur

Addressing a public rally in Jhansi, Home Minister Amit Shah highlighted the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bundelkhand and contrasted it with the work done by SP-BSP - 'bua and babua' (Akhilesh and Mayawati) governments in past, which, he alleged, worked to destroy the economy,

"Only work done by Akhilesh Yadav in the five years of the SP rule in Uttar Pradesh was that he got land belonging to the poor encroached on by goons and mafia," he alleged.

"In the Congress, there was Jawaharlal Nehru, after him Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi," he said, taking a jibe at 'dynasty' dominance in the main opposition party.

Shah said that the BJP had made three promises to people in Bundelkhand in 2017. These were: it will finish goondas and mafias, will fulfill the century-long demand for water in Bundelkhand and the youths of the region will not have to migrate for jobs. "We have fulfilled all three," Shah claimed.

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