Second phase of polling to be held on Wednesday is crucial for SP,BSP

Lucknow: The second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh which will be held on next Wednesday is crucial for both the ruling Samajwadi party and the Bahujan Samaj Party as most of the districts which will go to polls have heavy Muslim presence and both have not left anything to chance and done everything possible to woo members of the community. Between the two whichever party gets the larger support may may upset the apple cart of the other

In two of the eleven districts ,where polling will be held a day later, the percentage of Muslim population exceeds fifty per cent. A minister and senior leader of the Samajwadi Party, Azam Khan, who is known more for all the wrong reasons, is seeking re-election from one of these districts-- Rampur. Moradabad is the other district where Muslims account for more than 50 per cent of the population.

In two other districts, Saharanpur and Bijnor, Muslim population is more than 40 per cent of the total. In all,there are seven districts where 30 to 50 per cent members of the community live.

Both the parties have claimed majority support in the first phase of election held two days ago. The region where the polling was held last Saturday has twenty six per cent Muslims. It is another matter that the Bhartiya Janta Party for which the Muslims have nothing but hate has claimed that it will win 60 of the total 73 seats in this region.

The main reason for the party's claim is that Muslim votes have been divided between the SP and the BSP and in some parts of the area there has been polarisation of Hindu votes in favour of the party. The saffron brigade hopes that there will be action replay in the second phase of polling and the rest of five phases.

Going by the past records, the SP seems to be better placed. The party had bagged 35 of 67 seats , in the previous assembly election, in this part where polling will be held next. It had helped the party bag a total of 224 seats and form the government in the state.

The party's main rival, the BSP, had won only 10 seats and the Congress which has allied with SP three other. The situation, however, is different this time as the BSP has fielded the largest number of Muslim candidates and hopes to largely cash on it.

With polling in this part, election will be held in 140 constituencies out of the total 403. The rest of the seats will go to polls in five other phases. Polling process will be competed next month.

Also read: UP Polls 2017: Is Allahabad going to give BJP the CM face?