SP President Akhilesh Yadav.
– Photo : amar ujala
Expansion
SP has given special importance to the Kurmi community in giving tickets. In the divisions where the voters of this community are dominant, homogeneous candidates have been given under this strategy. A total of 10 Kurmi candidates have been given in 8 divisions, which is the highest number of SP tickets for any one caste.
The population of Kurmis among other backward classes in Uttar Pradesh is about 8 percent. They are second in population after Yadavs. According to political analysts, voters of Kurmi caste influence about 50 seats in the state. These include Sant Kabirnagar, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Bareilly, Unnao, Jalaun, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Sitapur, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Barabanki, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Etah, Bareilly and Lakhimpur seats. Are prominent. In this way, Kurmi voters have the ability to change political stance in many Lok Sabha seats of Awadh, Purvanchal, Bundelkhand and Rohilkhand.
Keeping these equations in mind, this time SP has placed bets on the candidates of Kurmi caste more than Yadavs and Muslims. In the last elections, Kurmi voters have been more inclined towards NDA. To change this situation, SP has placed bets on Shreya Verma from Gonda and Ram Shiromani Verma from Shravasti in Devipatan mandal. In Basti, Ayodhya and Gorakhpur divisions, efforts have been made to settle the equation on other seats by giving one candidate each from the Kurmi caste. In these divisions, Ram Prasad Choudhary has been fielded from Basti, Lalji Verma from Ambedkar Nagar and Ajay Pratap Singh alias Pintu Sainthwar from Kushi Nagar.
Even in Prayagraj division, Kurmi voters are considered to be in a decisive position, hence they have bet on SP Singh Patel from Pratapgarh and Naresh Uttam Patel from Fatehpur. SP has tried its best to break into the Kurmi vote bank by giving tickets to Krishna Patel from Banda in Chitrakoot division, Utkarsh Verma from Lakhimpur in Lucknow division and Bhagwat Sharan Gangwar from Pilibhit in Bareilly division.