UP Elections 2022: SP banks on Jat, Muslim candidates for first phase; will BJP's development plank work?

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UP Election 2022 First Phase: The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) combine has released the first list of candidates for the upcoming first phase of UP Assembly Election 2022. The list of 29 candidates has nine Muslim and Jat candidates each, indicating a clear shift in strategy of the Opposition alliance to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

UP ELECTION 2022: FULL COVERAGE

The split in Jat and Muslim votebank both in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 2017 UP polls had worked in favour of the BJP. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav appears to have taken this into account while finalising the candidates for western UP where polling will be held on 58 contituencies in the first phase on February 10. 

Tough task

In 2017, the BJP had won 53 of 58 seats in western Uttar Pradesh, however, repeating the show in 2022 can be an uphill task for the saffron party. 

All opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party, RLD, Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, have given priority to the issues related to farmers, while the ruling BJP claims that the Yogi Adityanath-led government has done several important works for the development of the region.

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The BJP highlights in its campaign the proposed international airport in Noida, ending migration from Kairana and the development of the region, along with clearing dues of sugarcane farmers. 

Cabinet ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan have resigned accusing the BJP government of neglecting Dalits, backward, youth, farmers, unemployed and the underprivileged. The development has boosted Samajwadi Party and it claims that in the first phase itself the 'cycle' will accelarate to power. 

The ball is now in BJP's court.

ALSO READ: UP Election 2022: Samajwadi Party, RLD release first list of candidates