UP’s perfume capital Kannauj heads for a close battle between BJP & SP

Kannauj district has three seats – Kannauj Sadar-a reserved seat, Tirwa and Chhibramau. Kannauj Sadar has garnered much attention due to the BJP’s nomination of Asim Arun, an IPS officer who was commissioner of Kanpur. He is challenging three-time MLA SP MLA Anil Kumar Dohare.

Ghanshyam Gupta, who has a fast food cart in the Hardeoganj area of Kannauj, said earlier “rowdy elements” would come and help themselves to the food and would leave without paying. He said this behaviour has stopped under the BJP and he is also getting free ration.

In 2017, Dohare had defeated the BJP’s Banwari Lal Dohare, by all of 2,454 votes.

In Tirwa constituency, Sukhpal Yadav said: “The BJP has not done a penny’s worth of work. If you look at Kannauj district, be it the medical college, engineering college, polytechnic or the Kisaan bazaar – all were started by Akhilesh Yadav.

Rabia Bi, whose family runs an incense stick business, said while “chhedkhaani” (eve-teasing) has stopped, small businesses’ backs have been broken by the GST.

Non-Yadav OBCs, who are believed to be the deciding factor here, have increasingly moved towards the BJP.

In Tirwa, where the PM addressed a rally on Saturday, the BJP has fielded current MLA Kailash Singh Rajput, a Lodh Rajput. and the BSP has fielded Ajay Kumar Verma, another Lodh Rajput. The community, with about 85,000 votes, dominates the constituency.

Dalit Factor

In Sukkhapurwa, a Harijan locality with Gautams, a Jatav community, there is unanimous angst against the BJP and largely the locality plans to vote for the BSP, even as some voters said they are looking at the SP.