Turncoats giving tough times to SP in Etawah

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's bastion of Etawah is feeling the jitters of turncoats who have switched loyalty to the BSP and are now out to spoil the prospects of their former party.To protect the home turf of Mulayam, who hails from a village in this constituency, the SP has fielded Premdas Katheria against BSP's Gauri Shanker for the polls on May 7. The BSP nominee had won the last assembly election from Malihabad on the SP ticket.     

Leading the pack of rebels is Dhaniram Verma, once considered a close confidant of the SP supremo, who is now with the BSP.      Though Verma is not contesting from Etawah, his active support to the BSP nominee is giving some sleepless nights to the SP. Moreover, Verma's son Mahendra is contesting against Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav from the Kannauj seat.      

Apart from Shanker and Verma, SP MLA from the Sadar segment Mahendra Singh Rajput and former MP Ram Singh Shakya, too, have revolted against Mulayam and are now with the BSP.      

Other than SP rebels, the caste equation of the constituency had also given a boost to the BSP. Etawah had been a bastion of the SP for a long time but post-delimitation, Etawah has changed to a reserved seat, forcing the party to shift its two-time sitting MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya to the Fatehpur Sikri seat. SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's bastion of Etawah is feeling the jitters of turncoats who have switched loyalty to the BSP and are now out to spoil the prospects of their former party.  

    To protect the home turf of Mulayam, who hails from a village in this constituency, the SP has fielded Premdas Katheria against BSP's Gauri Shanker for the polls on May 7. The BSP nominee had won the last assembly election from Malihabad on the SP ticket.      Leading the pack of rebels is Dhaniram Verma, once considered a close confidant of the SP supremo, who is now with the BSP.      Though Verma is not contesting from Etawah, his active support to the BSP nominee is giving some sleepless nights to the SP. Moreover, Verma's son Mahendra is contesting against Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav from the Kannauj seat.Apart from Shanker and Verma, SP MLA from the Sadar segment Mahendra Singh Rajput and former MP Ram Singh Shakya, too, have revolted against Mulayam and are now with the BSP.    

  Other than SP rebels, the caste equation of the constituency had also given a boost to the BSP. Etawah had been a bastion of the SP for a long time but post-delimitation, Etawah has changed to a reserved seat, forcing the party to shift its two-time sitting MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya to the Fatehpur Sikri seat.

    Interestingly, all the main contestants of Etawah —SP candidate Premdas Katheria, BSP's Gaurishankar and BJP's Kamlesh Katheria are making debut in the Lok Sabha elections. Of the total 14.20 lakh electorate, 19 per cent are SC, of which 11 per cent are Jatavs, the traditional vote bank of the BSP. Other backward castes comprises 33 per cent of the total electoral base. 

    Giving a fillip to BSP's social engineering formula, Brahmins with a population base of 11 per cent too may play decisive role.The BSP is expecting better prospects this time with the party holding two assembly segments - Ajeetmal and Auriaya - which are part of the Etawah Parliamentary Constituency.   

  The social engineering formula of Mayawati will be put to test in this constituency and if it works no one can stop BSP nominee, while on the other hand defeat from here would mean that the formula has no takers, Rajesh Kumar, a teacher said.For the SP, the only solace is that a Yadav-dominated assembly segment Bharthana, which was earlier part of Kannauj parliamentary constituency, is now a part of Etawah seat.Return of two senior leaders back in the party fold, including former MLA Kamlesh Pathak and Babu Darshan Singh Yadav had boosted the morale of the SP leaders.