Campaigning for the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the third phase of elections on May 7 ended on Sunday evening after days of hectic roadshows and rallies by rival political leaders.
The 10 Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the third phase are Sambhal, Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Bareilly and Aonla.
The fate of 100 candidates will be decided by 1.88 crore voters – a little over one crore male voters, and more than 87 lakh women voters – in this phase of the elections.
Out of the 10 constituencies where polling will be held on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party won eight in 2019 – Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Etah, Budaun, Bareilly and Aonla. The Mainpuri and Sambhal Lok Sabha seats were bagged by the Samajwadi Party.
The third phase of the Lok Sabha polls assumes significance, as it will seal the fate of Union Minister SP Singh Baghel, UP Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh, Minister of State for Revenue Anoop Pradhan Balmiki, and several members of Mulayam Singh Yadav's family. Baghel, Jaiveer and Balmiki are contesting from Agra (SC), Mainpuri, and Hathras (SC) Lok Sabha seats.
This phase of the polls will be a test for the SP first family with Dimple Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Aditya Yadav contesting Mainpuri, Firozabad and Budaun constituencies respectively.
In Mainpuri, a SP bastion that the party has never lost, sitting MP Dimple Yadav will take on UP Tourism Minister Jayveer Singh of the BJP. In Firozabad, BJP candidate Chandra Sen Jadon is contesting against Akshay Yadav, son of SP senior leader Ram Gopal Yadav, and in Budaun, Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Singh Yadav, is making his electoral debut on SP ticket against Durvijay Shakya of the BJP.
The third phase polls unfold with the emergence of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), prominently including Yadavs, Lodhs and Kachhi/Shakya/Murao communities, exerting influence as decisive factors across various constituencies. Alongside, the enduring impact of Muslim and Jat demographics remains significant in select areas.
The third phase saw some high-pitched campaigns by leaders of all parties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led the BJP campaign against, what they called, dynasty and appeasement politics of the Congress and the Samajwadi SP, and slammed the opposition for declining the invitation for Pran Pratishtha of Ram temple.
The SP, which has much at stake in phase three polls, pushed its caste census pitch and focused its campaign on the quota issue, alleging that the BJP will end reservations and hence is seeking 400-plus seats in the Lok Sabha.
Several constituencies, including Sambhal, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Mainpuri and Aonla are witnessing a triangular contest between the National Democratic Alliance, INDIA bloc and the Bahujan Samaj Party while others like Hathras, Firozabad, Etah and Budaun will see a direct contest between the BJP and the SP.
Sambhal, a stronghold of Muslim-Yadav combination, elected Mulayam Singh Yadav to the Lok Sabha twice in 1998 and 1999 and another SP veteran Ram Gopal Yadav in 2004. The BSP won the seat twice in 1996 and 2009. The lotus blossomed in Sambhal only once, in 2014, while the Congress last won this seat in 1984.
The Hathras Lok Sabha constituency is a bastion of the BJP and since 1991 it has uninterruptedly elected the candidates of the party. In 2009, the Rashtriya Lok Dal won this seat as an ally of the BJP.
The BJP has won the Agra reserved seat five times since 1991, three times in a row since 2009. The BJP has won the Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha seat twice – in 2019 and 2014 – while the BSP won it in 2009.
The Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency elected SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in 2009 and his cousin Akshay Yadav in 2014. Raj Babbar of Congress gave a shock defeat to SP’s Dimple Yadav in this constituency in a bypoll in 2009.
Mainpuri is one the most keenly contested Lok Sabha seats in the third phase. Mainpuri sent SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav to the Lok Sabha five times. The SP has been winning this seat since 1996. The Congress last won from here in 1984. In 2019, Mulayam Singh Yadav won by defeating BJP’s Prem Singh Shakya. In 2024, BJP’s Jaiveer Singh is challenging the SP’s Dimple Yadav. Dr Gulshan Dev Shakya is the BSP candidate.
The BJP won the Etah Lok Sabha seat six times since 1989. In between, the SP won this seat twice. In 2009, Kalyan Singh won as an Independent supported by the SP. BJP’s Rajveer Singh, son of late Kalyan Singh, won this seat in 2014 and 2019. The party has made him its candidate again in 2024. Devesh Shakya is the SP candidate while BSP has fielded Mohammed Irfan as its candidate.
The SP won the Budaun seat continuously from 1996 to 2014, but it was wrested by the BJP in 2019. This time, BJP has replaced sitting MP Sanghmitra Maurya with Durvijay Shakya. Aditya Yadav, son of Shivpal Yadav, is making his political debut from Budaun. The BSP candidate is Muslim Khan.
The BJP has won the Aonla Lok Sabha seat six times since 1989 and three times since 2009. The SP has won it twice. Dharmendra Kashyap (BJP), Neeraj Maurya (SP) and Abid Ali (BSP) are the main contestants.
In the Bareilly constituency, the BJP has replaced its eight-time MP Santosh Gangwar, who continuously won the seat from 1989 till 2019, barring in 2009 when the Congress candidate Praveen Aron defeated him by a thin margin. Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar is the BJP candidate who is pitted against Praveen Aron, now an SP candidate. The nomination of BSP candidate Chhotelal Gangwar was cancelled due to a technical glitch.
