Phulpur: Candidates with BSP background enliven three-way contest for seat of stalwarts
The BJP won the seat for the first time in 2014, lost the 2018 by-poll and bounced back in 2019. The caste factor is crucial here as only Patel-Kurmi candidates have emerged victorious nine times in the last 11 elections
Known as the constituency of stalwarts in the past, the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a triangular contest among candidates who have past or present associations with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The caste factor is crucial here as only Patel-Kurmi leaders have emerged victorious nine times in the last 11 elections.
The BJP won the seat for the first time in 2014 but lost the 2018 by-polls. It regained the seat a year later in 2019.
SEAT OF STALWARTS
India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was elected from Phulpur in 1952, 1957 and 1962. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, who served as PM in 1989-90, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Phulpur in 1971. The first Indian woman cabinet minister, who went on to have a long career in politics and international diplomacy, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit won the Phulpur by-election in 1964 after Nehru’s death. She retained the seat in 1967.
The now-slain mafia-politician Atiq Ahmed also won the Phulpur seat in 2004 on the Samajwadi Party ticket. Riding the Modi wave, Keshav Prasad Maurya won the seat for the BJP for the first time in 2014, about three years before he became Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister.
In the 2018 by-election, the SP wrested the seat. In 2019, BJP’s Keshari Devi Patel defeated the SP’s Pandhari Yadav.
THE 2024 BATTLE
The BJP has dropped sitting MP Keshari Devi Patel and fielded sitting Phulpur MLA Praveen Patel, who started his political career with the BSP but joined the BJP in 2017.
The SP has fielded Amarnath Maurya, who was also with the BSP for a long time before switching sides. The BSP has fielded its senior leader Jagannath Pal. Praveen’s father Mahendra Pratap Patel was elected MLA from Jhunsi in 1984, 1989 and 1991. He was associated with the Janata Party and the Congress.
Praveen was elected MLA from Phulpur on the BSP ticket in 2007, but lost in 2012. In 2017 and 2022 assembly polls, he won the seat for the BJP.
Samajwadi Party state secretary Amarnath Maurya contested the Allahabad West assembly seat on the BSP ticket in 2002 but lost.
Amarnath Maurya had joined the SP along with Swami Prasad Maurya before the 2022 U.P. assembly elections. He was initially named the SP candidate for Allahabad West but, on the last day of the nomination, the party gave the ticket to former Allahabad University Students Union president Richa Singh.
Jagannath Pal, the BSP candidate, was the then party chief Kanshi Ram’s counting agent in 1996. Currently, he is the BSP’s Prayagraj divisional in-charge.
Pichhda Dalit Muslim (PDM) Nyay Morcha has fielded Mahima Patel of the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi).
CASTE EQUATIONS
The constituency has over 20.47 lakh voters here, including over 11.11 lakh men, over 9.35 lakh women and 251 transgenders. The caste composition includes three lakh Kurmi voters, two lakh Yadavs , three lakh other OBCs, 2.5 lakh Muslims, over 2.5 lakh Scheduled Castes and around two lakh Brahmin voters. The number of Kayastha voters in both the assembly constituencies of the city, Allahabad North and Allahabad West, is also more than 2 lakh.
Kamala Bahuguna had won the seat in 1977. After this, 12 Lok Sabha elections were held and OBC candidates were victorious 11 times.
POINT OF INTEREST
The Sangam -- the holy confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, besides Allahabad University, Anand Bhavan and posh Civil Lines, Allahabad High Court are actually part of the Phulpur parliamentary constituency and not Allahabad parliamentary seat.