Loksabha Elections 2024: 80 candidates for 8 seats in the first phase in UP

The picture of the first phase of elections for eight Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh has become clear. Four candidates withdrew their names on the last day of nomination. Now 80 candidates are left in the fray. Four candidates withdrew their names, including two from Saharanpur and one each from Kairana and Moradabad. Maximum number of 14 candidates are left in Kairana and minimum number of six candidates each are left in Nagina and Rampur Lok Sabha seats. It is known that March 30 was the last day for withdrawal of nominations in the first phase of elections. The first phase of voting will take place on April 19.

Voting will take place on 8 seats of UP in the first phase. This includes Rampur, Saharanpur, Pilibhit, Nagina, Bijnor, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar and Kairana Lok Sabha seats. Pilibhit seat has become the hottest seat in these 8 Lok Sabha elections, because BJP has wiped out Varun Gandhi and has declared Jitin Prasad, who came from Congress a few years ago, as its candidate. But if we talk about politics, this area is also known as the Lok Sabha constituency of Maneka and Varun Gandhi, but this time in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has canceled the ticket of Varun Gandhi and declared Jitin Prasad as its candidate from here. Samajwadi Party has also placed its bet on Kurmi community from here, SP has made Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar its candidate.

The second seat is of Bijnor. RLD candidate Chandan Chauhan is the NDA candidate from Bijnor, while Samajwadi Party has made Deepak Saini its candidate. BSP has given the nomination here to Jat candidate Chaudhary Virendra Singh. BJP has fielded Gurjar candidates, BSP has fielded Jat candidates and Samajwadi Party has fielded OBC candidates. Of the two seats given to RLD in this alliance, one seat is from Bijnor. Talking about the history of Bijnor Lok Sabha, since the Ram Mandir movement i.e. from 1991 till now, Bharatiya Janata Party has captured this seat four times. Whereas Samajwadi Party has represented this seat twice, RLD once and currently this seat is occupied by BSP. Whose MP is Maluk Nagar.

The third seat Nagina is special because Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan is searching for his political ground from here. He is contesting elections for the first time. BJP has made Om Kumar its candidate, SP has made Manoj Kumar its candidate, while BSP has made Surendra Singh Mainwal its candidate. Nagina Lok Sabha seat is a safe seat. Although this seat is a safe seat, the number of Muslims is highest on this seat. About 7.5 lakh voters are Muslims. The number of Dalit voters is around four and a half lakh. This seat came into existence in 2009 and Lok Sabha elections were held on it for the first time. Yashveer Singh of Samajwadi Party had won for the first time in this election. After that, in the 2014 elections, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Yashwant Singh captured this seat by defeating the SP candidate. Whereas in the 2019 elections, due to the alliance of SP and BSP, Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Girish Chandra, who is currently representing this seat, won this seat.

Kairana: This area is considered to be Hindu and Muslim dominated, SP has made Iqra Hasan its candidate, while BJP has made Pradeep Chaudhary. Both have passed away, but now religion has a bigger influence than community in the politics here. The fourth seat, Kairana, has five assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha. In which Kairana, Shamli, Thana Bhawan Nukud and Gangoh are assembly seats. If we talk about caste equation in Kairana Lok Sabha, it has the highest number of Muslim voters. Whose number is around 5.45 lakh. Talking about the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, during that time the BJP candidate had won by more than 75000 votes.

From the fifth seat, Saharanpur, Samajwadi Party has fielded Imran Masood and BJP has fielded Raghav Lakhan Pal. Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat is considered important for all political parties in many ways. The first Lok Sabha elections were held on Saharanpur seat in 1952 and since then this seat became a stronghold of Congress. This seat was held by Congress from 1952 to 1977. From the elections held after the Emergency in 1977 till 1996, this seat was held by Janata Dal or Janata Party. After losing twice, Congress once again won here in the 1984 elections. After 1996, Saharanpur seat went to Bharatiya Janata Party twice, Bahujan Samaj Party twice, Samajwadi Party once and then in 2014 due to Modi wave, after 16 years this seat went to Bharatiya Janata Party. Earlier, BJP had won elections from this seat in 1998. But in the 2019 elections this seat was once again captured by BSP. In 2019, Haji Fazlur Rahman of BSP, who was the Grand Alliance candidate from Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat, won by getting 514139 votes. He won this seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Raghav Lakhanpal by 22,417 votes and became the Lok Sabha MP from this seat. Dalit and Muslim votes remain decisive in this Lok Sabha seat, which makes it important for political parties.

Azam Khan’s insistence on the sixth seat Moradabad has forced Akhilesh to change his candidate in Moradabad, instead of ST Hasan, SP has now made Ruchiveera its candidate, while BJP has again placed its bet on Kunwar Sarvesh Singh. Moradabad is an important Lok Sabha of Uttar Pradesh. If we talk about Moradabad Lok Sabha, which is famous as Brass City due to the brass handicraft industry, then it has a total of 5 assembly constituencies. Current MP Dr. ST Hasan is Moradabad Lok Sabha MP from Samajwadi Party, although Moradabad has a history that in every Lok Sabha elections, MP from a different party becomes MP, like SP MP in 2019, BJP MP Kunwar Sarvesh Singh in 2014, Congress in 2009. Cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin has been an MP.

From the seventh seat, Muzaffarnagar, BJP has fielded its Jat face Sanjeev Balyan for the third time, while SP has made Jat leader Chaudhary Harendra Singh from Congress its candidate. If we talk about Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh, this seat is counted among the main seats of Uttar Pradesh after the 2013 riots. Because in the Lok Sabha elections held in 2014 after the 2013 riots, the Bharatiya Janata Party had swept aside all the parties. In this 2014 election, BJP had fielded Dr. Sanjeev Baliyan as its candidate for Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat. In this storm of BJP, Sanjeev Balyan got 653391 votes in this election. Whereas BSP candidate Kadir Rana, who stood second, could get only 252241 votes. Due to which BJP candidate Dr. Sanjeev Balyan defeated BSP candidate Kadir Rana by a record 401150 votes in this election. After this, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also, BJP once again placed its bet on Dr. Sanjeev Balyan. This time, in front of Sanjeev Baliyan was the late Ajit Singh, the national president of Rashtriya Lok Dal. In this election also, Sanjeev Baliyan won this election by defeating Ajit Singh by 6526 votes. In this election, Dr. Sanjeev Balyan got 573780 votes while Ajit Singh got 567254 votes. If we talk about the caste based data of Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat, then according to the estimated data of 2019 elections, there are around 17 lakh voters in this seat. In which there are about 5 lakh Muslims, 2 lakh Dalits, 1.5 lakh Jats, 130000 Kashyaps, 120000 Sainis, 115000 Vaishyas and about 480000 Thakurs, Gurjars, Tyagis, Brahmins, Pals, Prajapats, Goldsmiths and other communities.

And if we talk about the eighth seat Rampur, Rampur, once famous for knives and knives, was ruled by a total of 10 Nawabs till 1949. After the independence of the country, in the general elections held in 1952, the country’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was elected from here and reached the Parliament. Apart from the Nawab family, BJP’s Muslim face Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, actress Jaya Prada and SP’s fire brand leader Azam Khan have won here. If we look at the election data, there have been many ups and downs in the elections from 1952 to 2019. MPs elected from here 10 times from Congress, four times from BJP, three times from SP and once from Bharatiya Lok Dal have represented Rampur in the temple of democracy i.e. Parliament. Politically, religion and caste do not matter much in this Muslim dominated seat. This is the reason why the voters here do not hesitate in electing a candidate belonging to another religion or caste. According to the political background of Rampur Lok Sabha, this seat is also in the list of Congress as the largest party in the Indian alliance. Whereas SP can also be seen presenting a strong claim here. On the other hand, BJP stalwarts have also left no stone unturned to defeat their opponents in the electoral battle on many occasions.