Cong’s Shervani queers the pitch for SP-BSP

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Badaun, April 22

Badaun was expected to be a cake walk for Mahagatbandhan candidate two-times sitting MP Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP). But with the Congress fielding its five-time MP Salim Iqbal Shervani, it is now a tight triangular fight.

People across the board admit that Yadav, a cousin of former CM Akhilesh Yadav, has brought development in the area. He was instrumental in getting a 300-bed Government Medical College for  Badaun, which is expected to start this year. Investment in infrastructure like roads is clearly visible. However, lack of jobs is a big problem which Yadav, during meetings, blames it on the Modi government.

During the Modi wave in 2014, Dharmendra had defeated his BJP rival by over 1.66 lakh votes, winning one of the five seats for the SP. He polled 48.50% . The BSP was third with 15.27% votes. The BJP vote share was  32.31%.

Going by poll arithmetic, with the SP and BSP joining hands, the seat should have been a cakewalk for Yadav. But with Congress’ Shervani wooing the 3.5 lakh Muslim voters as well as reaching out to the Brahmins, the fight has turned triangular. Shervani has won the seat a record five times, only once in 1984 on the Congress ticket and four times as  Samajwadi Party candidate. He returned to the Congress ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and lost Badaun to Yadav in an election in which the Congress won a record 22 seats in UP.

Shervani is trying to garner Muslim votes in the name of “securing a safe future for the minorities.”

BJP candidate Sanghmitra Maurya is the daughter of Cabinet Minister Swami Prasad Maurya, once Mayawati’s confidant who shifted loyalty to the BJP on the eve of the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections. In 2014, Sanghmitra was the BSP candidate against Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri.

She is depending on the three lakh Maurya-Shakya voters, the 65,000 Lodh votes and some upper caste votes who have traditionally voted for the BJP. But she is obviously feeling the heat. At a public meeting, she purportedly asked her party workers to cast ‘fake’ votes if the voters do not turn up. Badaun goes to the polls tomorrow (April 23). 

Minority factor

• Salim Iqbal Shervani is trying to garner Muslim votes in the name of “securing a safe future for the minorities”
• Shervani has won the seat a record five times, only once in 1984 on the Congress ticket and four times as  SP candidate