Kanpur: As soon as the talk of seat sharing in the Indian alliance of opposition parties started, the Samajwadi Party in UP has increased its focus on those seats on which it sees its dominance. Kanpur Lok Sabha is also included in such seats. On which SP has decided to stake its claim. Party President Akhilesh Yadav has also indicated to the MLAs to start homework for this. The SP organization in the city has also been asked to take to the streets regarding public problems.
Samajwadi Party has started preparing the road map for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. If we look at the track record of Kanpur Lok Sabha seat, SP is getting stronger here since 2014. If the Kanpur seat comes to SP’s account in the seat sharing of the opposition alliance. So from the party side, the name of MLA from Arya Nagar assembly constituency Amitabh Bajpai is in discussion. On the other hand, from the Congress side, three-time former MLA Ajay Kapoor and AICC member Alok Mishra are considered to be strong contenders.
Kanpur Lok Sabha seat has been held by BJP since 2014. Murli Manohar Joshi won first. Now Sachdev Pachauri is the current MP. However, Kanpur seat has not been a traditional seat of Congress even before. Three elections were held during the tenure of 1951 to 57. In which Congress had dominance but from 1957 to 1980, Kanpur seat was not with Congress. Independent SM Banerjee was MP from Kanpur four times. Then in 1977, Manohar Lal was elected from Janata Party.
In 1980, Arif Mohammad Khan was elected from Congress and then in 1984, Naresh Chandra Chaturvedi was elected on Congress ticket. Later, CPI(M)’s Subhashini Ali Sehgal became MP on behalf of the opposition parties that came under one umbrella in the name of non-Congressism. After this, BJP captain Pandit Jagveer Singh Drona kept winning from 1991 to 1999. From 1999 to 2014, Shri Prakash Jaiswal of Congress scored a hat-trick and is a continuous MP.
Samajwadi Party is leading in the assembly elections in the city. In 2017, she had won Sisamau and Arya Nagar. So, by winning the Cantonment seat in 2022, it has shown that it is ahead of Congress in hoisting the flag in BJP’s stronghold Kanpur. By getting more than two lakh votes in the elections of SP MLA and Mayor on three assembly seats, SP gave a clear message that its ground is strong in the city.
SP is the main opposition party in the Municipal Corporation. Party sources say that SP will strongly claim the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat along with Kanpur. It is believed that SP can stake claim on the party’s traitorous Brahmin leader MLA Amitabh Bajpai from the Brahmin-dominated Kanpur Lok Sabha seat.