Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Kairana to Thana Bhawan, Here Are The Five Key Contests As Parties Battle For Jatland in The First Phase

Elections in Uttar Pradesh, the most crucial state in the five state assembly elections of 2022, starts on February 10, starting with Western UP.

The state will vote in seven phases ending March 7 to elect a total of 403 MLAs.

Western UP, with the domination of Jats and Muslims, has emerged as a tricky terrain for the BJP. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is on record as saying that the “first phase in UP is a farmers’ election and will set the tone for the remaining phases”.

This phase of polling is extremely crucial since it includes districts in western UP where candidates in several constituencies are facing hostile voters, mainly due to the farmers' agitation. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Yogi Adityanath to Akhilesh Yadav, Here Are CM Probables In UP 

Here Are the Five Key Battles in the first phase of poll:

When the BJP released its first list for the UP polls with names of 107 candidates, it picked Mriganka Singh, daughter of the late MP Hukum Singh, as its candidate from Kairana.

In the SP list from the same constituency was Nahid Hasan, the sitting MLA.

Over a century ago, the Singhs and the Hasans were united, part of one family headed by Baba Kalsa, until an ancestor branched out after converting to Islam.

Ever since the early 1990s, Kairana has sent representatives from both these families to the state assembly as well as the Lok Sabha. Through the decades the two clans changed their political allegiances at various points of time. But it was always Singh versus Hasan. Now that both Hukum Singh and

Munawwar Hasan are dead, the long-standing political rivalry between the two families has moved on to the next generation. Munawwar Hasan's son Nahid defeated Hukum Singh's daughter Mriganka in the 2017 state polls.

The two families have dominated Kairana's political landscape for over four decades.

Talking about the social equations of Thana Bhawan assembly constituency, people of all castes live here. There are a total of three lakh voters in Thana Bhawan assembly constituency. There is a majority of OBC voters in this assembly constituency. Muslim voters also play a decisive role in determining the election result of this seat.

Rana is known as a firebrand Hindu leader and was an accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots. He won from this seat in 2012 and then in 2017.  Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Yogi Adityanath's Bastion Gorakhpur Urban To Akhilesh Yadav's Stronghold Karhal Assembly Seat, Here Are 7 Key Constituencies

The Yogi Adityanath government has withdrawn cases against him, but the minister faces resistance in his constituency on the issue of insufficient increase in cane MSP and pending arrears.

BJP's Suresh Kumar Rana, MLA from Thana Bhawan assembly seat, is a minister in the UP government. Suresh claims that there has been all-round development of the area during his tenure. Leaders of opposition parties are calling the MLA's claim a breeze. BJP has bet on Suresh Kumar this time too, while the alliance of SP and Rashtriya Lok Dal has fielded Ashraf Ali, Congress has fielded Satyam Saini and Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded SP rebel Zaheer Malik. Voting for this assembly seat is to be held in the first phase on February 10.

Mathura Assembly constituency, which falls under the Braj region, is a high-stakes battle for BJP which is hoping to retain the seat in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls.

The BJP has fielded sitting MLA Shrikant Sharma, a Brahmin, while Congress retained Pradeep Mathur from the Mathura seat. Meanwhile, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) replaced Jagjeet Chaudhary with SK Sharma in the Mathura seat while Samajwadi Party(SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chose Devendra Agarwal, a former MLA from Sadabad, as its candidate from the Mathura seat.

With an aim to come to power for the second time in a row in Uttar Pradesh, political experts say BJP is focussing on its Hindutva agenda as it campaigned with a theme song which focusses on Mathura, along with Ayodhya and Kashi. This theme song talks about the Ram temple being constructed in Ayodhya, the redevelopment of Kashi Vishwanath and what Mathura will be like in the times ahead.

Atrauli assembly seat of Aligarh district is the most VIP seat in the district. Here in the year 2017 the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won

Sandeep Singh, grandson of late Kalyan Singh is contesting from the Atrauli seat.

Viresh Yadav is the candidate from SP while Congress Party has made Dharmendra Lodhi its candidate from Atrauli Constituency.

Sandeep has been one of the few low-profile ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government and has steered clear of controversy in his tenure.

He is seeking re-election from Atrauli in Aligarh, which is considered a stronghold of the Kalyan Singh family. Kalyan Singh had won from this seat eleven times, which is a record in itself.

From Muzaffarnagar assembly seat, BJP fielded Kapil Dev Agarwal. SP again gave ticket to Gaurav Swarup in front of BJP's Kapil Dev. BJP's Kapil Dev again defeated SP's Gaurav Swarup. Rakesh Sharma of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) finished third.

The SP-RLD alliance has given ticket to Saurabh Swarup for the Sadar assembly seat here, which is causing huge displeasure among some of the party workers. SP leader Rakesh Sharma was also considered to be a strong contender on this seat, but his supporters were enraged by not being given a ticket and on Wednesday he opened a front against District President Pramod Tyagi. Hundreds of Rakesh Sharma's supporters reached Pramod Tyagi's house and created a ruckus. These people first sat in front of Pramod Tyagi's car, as soon as they were removed from there, they got up from the road and started shouting slogans.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 07, 2022 02:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).