Uttar Pradesh: Yadav family’s prestige at stake as 10 Lok Sabha seats go to polls in third phase today

The Samajwadi Party (SP) aims to regain lost ground while the Bhartiya Janata Party is out to consolidate its hold in the 10 Uttar Pradesh constituencies that will vote in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on Tuesday.
These 10 Lok Sabha seats are: Sambhal, Hathras (SC), Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla and Bareilly.
A total of 100 candidates are in the fray for these constituencies spread over the Braj and Rohilkhand regions of West Uttar Pradesh. Bareilly has the most candidates, 13, and Firozabad the least, seven.
The prestige of the Samajwadi Party’s Yadav family is at stake in the region, popularly called Yadavland. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, the sitting MP, is contesting from Mainpuri. Cousin Akshya Yadav is in the fray in Firozabad and another cousin Aditya Yadav is the SP candidate in Budaun.
Riding the Modi wave, the BJP had breached the SP fort and won eight out of the 10 seats — Hathras, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Etah, Budaun, Aonla and Bareilly — in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, giving a jolt to the SP-BSP alliance in its bastion.
The Samajwadi Party won the Mainpuri and Sambhal seats while the BSP failed to open its account in this region.
The BJP had scripted victory with the support of non- Yadav OBCs, non- Jatav Dalits and upper caste voters.
For the BJP, U.P. tourism and culture minister Jaiveer Singh is contesting from Mainpuri, minister of state Anoop Pradhan Valmiki from Hathras, BJP Kisan Morcha national president Rajkumar Chahar from Fatehpur Sikri and Union minister SP Singh Baghel from the Agra seat.
The BSP is going solo this time. It has fielded upper caste, Muslim and OBC candidates.
OBC voters — Yadavs, Lodhs, Shakyas, Sainis, Kacchis, Baghels, Jats , Murao and Kurmis – as well as the Dalits play a decisive role on seats in the Braj region. The Muslim vote is key in three Rohilkhand constituencies of Sambhal, Budaun and Aonla.
SAMBHAL
The Samajwadi Party fielded its Kundarki MLA Zia-ur-Rehman Barq after the demise of the sitting MP Shafiqur Rehman Barq. The BJP has reposed faith in Parameshvar Lal Saini, an OBC leader who lost in 2019. The BSP has nominated former SP MLA Shaulat Ali.
Despite the Modi wave in 2019, the SP’s Shafiqur Rehman Barq defeated the BJP’s Parameshvar Lal Saini by over 2 lakh votes. In 2014, the BJP won the seat for the first time as its candidate Satya Pal Singh Saini defeated Barq by 5,000 votes. The constituency has 22% Muslim, 21% Yadav and 16% Dalit voters.
HATHRAS
This is a BJP stronghold. The party has won here seven times since 1991, except in 2009, when its ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal won the seat. In 2019, BJP’s Rajvir Singh Diler defeated the SP’ s Ramji Lal Suman.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP has replaced Diler with UP minister Anoop Pradhan Valmiki. The SP has fielded Jasveer Valmiki and the BSP Hembabu Dhangar. Sitting BJP MP Rajvir Singh Diler died on April 24.
The Dalits comprise 23%, 28% upper caste, 13% Muslim, 7% Lodh, 14% Jat and 11% Yadav voters.
AGRA
The BJP won the seat five times since 1991. The SP bagged it seat in 1999 and 2004. There are 23% Dalit and 13% Muslim voters here.
The BJP has fielded Union minister SP Baghel who defeated the BSP’s Manoj Kumar Soni in 2019. The SP has fielded Suresh Chandra Kardam and the BSP nominated Pooja Amrohi.
FATEHPUR SIKRI
The BJP won the seat in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2009, the BSP’s Seema Upadhyay won the seat defeating Congress candidate Raj Babbar. In 2014, the BJP’s Chaudhary Babu Lal defeated Seema Upadhyay (BSP). In 2019, the BJP’s Raj Kumar Chahar defeated Congress candidate Raj Babbar by over 5 lakh votes.
The BJP has again fielded Chahar, a Jat leader. The Congress has nominated Ramnath Sikarwar, a Rajpur candidate, and the BSP has given the party ticket to Ram Niwas Sharma, a Brahmin.
FIROZABAD
Largely an SP stronghold, the constituency is all set to witness a three-cornered contest between the BJP, SP and the BSP. The BJP replaced sitting MP Chandra Sen Jadaun with Thakur Vishwadeep Singh. Jadaun won the seat in 2019, defeating Akshay Yadav, son of SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, amid a rebellion by Shivpal Yadav, who contested on the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) ticket.
The SP has fielded Akshya Yadav while the BSP nominated former minister Chaudhary Basheer.
MAINPURI
This is an impregnable Samajwadi Party fort dominated by the Yadav family. SP founder the late Mulayam Singh Yadav and other family members, including Dharmendra Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Dimple Yadav, won the seat in successive Lok Sabha elections since 1996. The BJP has fielded UP minister Jaiveer Singh to challenge the Yadav family’s might here.
The BSP has fielded former MLA Shiv Prasad Yadav from Mainpuri, replacing Gulshan Dev Shakya. Yadav had won Bharthana assembly seat in Etawah on the BSP ticket in 2007. Later, he defected to the BJP and in 2023 launched the Sarvajan Sukhay Party after resigning from the BJP.
ETAH
The BJP bagged the seat six times since 1989. The constituency was nurtured by former chief minister Kalyan Singh, who won the seat as an independent in the 2009 Lok Sabha election after rebelling against the BJP. His son Rajveer Singh, who won this seat in 2014 and 2019, is the BJP candidate again.
The SP has fielded Devesh Shakya to make inroads in the BJP’s non- Yadav OBC support base. The BSP has fielded a Muslim candidate, Mohammad Irfan, to make the contest triangular.
BUDAUN
The SP bagged the seat in six consecutive Lok Sabha elections in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Aditya Yadav, son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut from Budaun.
The BJP replaced its sitting MP Sanghmitra Maurya with Durvijay Singh Shakya, party president of the Braj region. In 2019, Sanghamitra Maurya, daughter of Swami Prasad Maurya, defeated Dharmendra, the SP-BSP alliance candidate to put Budaun in the BJP kitty after 28 years. In 1991, Chinmayanand won the seat on the BJP ticket. The BSP has fielded Muslim Khan.
AONLA
The BJP won the seat thrice in a row in 2009, 2014 and 2019. It has fielded sitting MP Dharmendra Kashyap. The SP has nominated Neeraj Maurya, a BSP defector. The BSP has fielded Syed Abid Ali.
BAREILLY
The BJP replaced its eight-time MP Santosh Gangwar with former MLA Chattrapal Gangwar. The SP has given the ticket to former MP Praveen Singh Aron who had defeated Santosh Gangwar in 2009. The BSP fielded former MLA Chotelal Gangwar, but his nomination was rejected during scrutiny, setting the pitch for a direct contest between the BJP and SP candidates.