Uttar Pradesh,
India’s biggest state, is going to polls for the fourth of its seven phases on Wednesday,
February 23. Fifty-nine Assembly constituencies are going to vote in this phase. The
first phase of polling saw 58 constituencies vote, the second phase 55 and the
third phase 59. 

Voting in this
high-octane election began in western Uttar Pradesh and has gradually moved
east. The 60 constituencies voting Wednesday are located in Awadh and the
central UP region, along with two districts of the Terai region and one
district in the Bundelkhand region. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) won 51 of these 60 seats and its ally Apna Dal won one more.

Results of the
elections in this fourth phase is said to be the key to obtaining the chief
minister’s chair. This is because since 1996, the party winning a majority of
seats in these districts formed the government in the state. Here’s a look at
some of the most keenly-contested seats in the fourth phase of the Uttar
Pradesh Assembly polls.

Sarojini Nagar

Sarojini Nagar in
UP capital Lucknow is perhaps going to see one of the most keenly-contested
elections in this phase. Swati Singh of the BJP won the seat in 2017 winning
37.31% of the vote. Anurag Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) came second with
25.55% of the vote and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Shiv Shankar Singh came third.

The 2021 elections
will see Rajeshwar Singh, former joint director of the Enforcement directorate
go up against Abhishek Mishra, a former professor of the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

While Rajeshwar
Singh’s image as a strict and clean former bureaucrat is making the BJP
hopeful, Abhishek Mishra is one of the most prominent Brahmin leaders of the
state.    

Lakhimpur

Lakhimpur is a
place in the Lakhimpur Kheri district. The same district where a group of farmers
protesting the Centre’s three agriculture laws (eventually revoked), were run
down by a car last year. The incident left eight people dead. Union Minister
Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra was arrested in connection with the incident
and later released on bail.

The violent
episode is expected to weigh heavily when voters go to polls on Wednesday. In
the 2017 Assembly polls, BJP’s Yogesh Verma won the seat defeating Samajwadi
Party’s Utkarsh Verma Madhur. Both the BJP and the SP have repeated their
candidates.

Rae Bareli (Sadar)

Rae Bareli has
been a Congress stronghold for years. Congress President Sonia Gandhi
represents the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament. Therefore, one
would assume that at least this particular seat would be a slam dunk for the
Congress. However, it might not be that easy.

Aditi Singh, the
Congress candidate who won the Rae Bareli (Sadar) seat in the 2017 elections,
has since moved to the BJP and is now going to challenge the Congress. Aditi
Singh is the daughter of Akhilesh Singh, a five-time MLA from the same
constituency. The Congress has fielded Manish Chauhan and the Samajwadi Party has
fielded RP Yadav.

Lucknow
Cantonment

The Lucknow
Cantonment Assembly constituency will be watched keenly because of the several
political considerations at work within BJP. BJP’s Brijesh Pathak, a minister
in the Yogi Adityanath-led government, is contesting the polls from here.

The 2017 Assembly
polls saw Rita Bahuguna Joshi win the seat and get inducted as a minister. In
2019, she won the Lok Sabha seat and left for Parliament. The ensuing by-elections
saw Suresh Chandra Tiwari win the seat.

For the 2022 polls,
however, BJP has brought in Brijesh Pathak from the Lucknow Central to contest
the seat. Going up against him will be Dilpreet Singh Virk of the Congress and
Anil Pandey of the BSP.

Hardoi

Beyond political parties,
Hardoi is largely a bastion of the Agarwal family. The seat has been won by a member
of the family every election since 1989. Currently, the mantle of the Agarwal
family lies with Nitin Agarwal. A three-time MLA, Agarwal has served as a
minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led government.

In 2021, however,
Agarwal became Deputy Speaker of the UP Assembly with support from the BJP. He
resigned from the SP and joined BJP in January this year. Samajwadi Party’s
Anil Verma will take him on.