The BJP looks set to sweep the Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh, repeating its performance of 2014 as well as the 2017 Assembly polls when it won all the 19 Assembly segments in Lucknow.
Bundelkhand is considered a strong region for the BJP as the Muslim population here is below the state average of 19.5%. The non-Yadav OBC, non-Jatav Dalit and upper caste vote segments kick in for the BJP in this region known for its drought and quarry mining.
As per latest figures provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the BJP is comfortably placed in Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda and Jalaun. Jalaun is a reserved seat.
In Banda, the BJP's R.K Patel is successfully resisting Shyama Prasad Gupta of the SP, with a lead of around 60,000 votes while the Congress's Bal Kumar Patel a former MP and brother of slain dacoit Dadua is third with 43,505.
In Hamirpur, the sitting BJP MP Pushpendra Singh Chandel is leading the BSP's Dilip Singhz also a Thakur, by over 77,000 votes. In Jalaun, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma of the BJP, a sitting MP, has it easy. He leads by over 60,000 votes. The battle here is between a Jatav of the BSP and a Kori of the BJP. President Ramnath Kovind is a Kori.
It was in Jalaun that BSP chief Mayawati cautioned OBC and Dalit voters against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's backward caste pitch, saying that while he was Chief Minister of Gujarat he had used authority to include his “forward caste” into the OBC category to eat up their share. She dubbed him a “fake OBC.”
A day later, Mr. Modi shot back at her in Kannauj and announced that he was born into the “most-backward caste.”
Associating himself with the MBC was seen as a smart tactic to mobilize the scattered lower backward castes communities a large section of which believe that the Yadavs were largely favoured in jobs and tokens under the SP rule in the state.
In Jhansi, the absence of Lodh leader Uma Bharti has hardly made a difference to the BIP as its Brahmin candidate Anurag Sharma, a new entrant, leads SP's Shyam Sundar Yadav by over 1.15 lakh votes.
