Will political parties be able to enter ‘forbidden territories’ this time in U.P.?
Mainpuri is the only seat that the BJP has never won, the SP has never bagged more than one-fourth of U.P. seats and the BSP has never opened its account in three dozen seats
Will various political parties in Uttar Pradesh be able to take their footprint to the Lok Sabha constituencies that have always remained forbidden territories for them, or will these constituencies remain elusive for them yet again?.
As each of the 80 LS constituencies in the state became a battleground for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the INDIA bloc besides the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that contested independent of alliances, there are several constituencies where political parties have failed to open their account.
While the Congress has not been able to make a comeback in around 50 constituencies since 1980s or even before in some constituencies, neither the Samajwadi Party (SP) nor the BSP, the two main opposition parties in U.P., have been able to win more than a dozen LS seats till now. Both parties have ruled multiple times in the state.
Among the constituencies that continue to remain unchartered territories for both the SP and the BSP are Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mathura, Bareilly, Hathras, Pilibhit, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Dhaurahra, Rae Bareli and Amethi.
Separately, the SP has not won more than one fourth of the LS seats in the state since its inception. Among these seats are Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Gorakhpur, Balia, Varanasi, Sultanpur, Shravasti, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Bhadohi, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Dhaurahra, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Mathura, Aligarh and Pilibhit.
The tally of the BSP’s elusive constituencies is even bigger. The party has never won at least three dozen of the 80 LS seats in the state. Among them are Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jhansi, Kaushambi, Kaiserganj, Gonda, Ghosi, Gorakhpur, Bansgaon, Ballia, Varanasi, Pratapgarh, Allahabad, Shahjahanpur, Kheri, Hardoi, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Kanpur, Hathras, Agra, Etah, Budaun, Amroha, Bareilly and Dhaurahra.
Similarly, the BSP’s elephant has never been able to put its feet in Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit as well. Significantly, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won all 80 seats but one in one LS poll or the other in the state. Mainpuri, an SP citadel, is the only parliamentary constituency that the BJP has never won.
With the counting of votes set to take place on Tuesday (June 4), the questions remain: Will the BJP break the Mainpuri jinx this time? And will the SP and the BSP be able to enter the forbidden territories and the Congress succeed in making a comeback in some more constituencies it has not won since decades together?
