Uttar Pradesh polls: Phase-IV crucial for Congress-SP alliance
Allahabad and Rae Bareli have been the birthplace as well as work place of the Congress leadership.
Lucknow: The fourth phase of polls in Uttar Pradesh, campaigning for which ended on Tuesday evening, is crucial for the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Allahabad and Rae Bareli that have been the birthplace as well as work place of the Congress leadership, will be going to polls on Thursday and the Congress is hoping to increase its tally in these two districts.
Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been unable to campaign in her constituency Rae Bareli due to health reasons and even Ms Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for only one day in her mother’s constituency.
In Rae Bareli, the Congress-SP alliance has come unstuck in Unchahar and Sareni assembly seats where both parties have put up their candidates.
In this phase, a total of 53 assembly seats spread across 12 districts that include Rae Bareli, Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Kaushambhi, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot and Fatehpur.
The Samajwadi Party, in 2012, had not won even a single seat in districts like Kaushambhi, Hamirpur, Mahoba, and Lalitpur. The party is fighting to break the jinx. The BJP which had won merely five seats in this phase in 2012, is looking for major gains this time. Union ministers, Uma Bharti and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, are trying to increase the party’s tally in the five districts of Bundelkhand that have been included in this phase.