New Delhi: Currently held by Ratnakar Mishra of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Mirzapur Vidhan Sabha seat is one such constituency where the contest will be keenly observed by poll pundits. Falling under the Mirzapur Lok Sabha constituency, the Vidhan Sabha seat of the Purvanchal region has 3,35,079 registered voters, data from the Election Commission of India showed. Of the total 3.35 lakh voters, 1,88,628 are male and 1,46,397 are female registered voters besides 54 voters in the others category.
In the 2017 Assembly Elections, Mishra had won the high-profile seat by securing 48.8 percent of the votes and defeated Kailash Chaurasiya of the Samajwadi Party with a margin of 57412 seats. For Assembly Elections 2022, parties are yet to announce candidates from Mirzapur.
| Candidate’s Name | Party | Level | Votes | Vote Rate % | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ratnakar Mishra | BJP | Winner | 109,196 | 48.48% | 57,412 |
| Kailash Chaurasiya | SP | Runner Up | 51,784 | 22.99% | |
| Mo. Parvez Khan | BSP | 3rd | 49,955 | 22.18% |
In the 2012 Assembly elections, SP’s Chaurasiya had bagged the seat by 22,299 votes. He had defeated Rang Nath Mishra of the Bahujan Samaj Party who got 46,800 votes. The voter turnout then was 56.48 %. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Apna Dal (soneylal) candidate Anupriya Singh Patel had registered a thumping victory from Mirzapur Lok Sabha (MP) Seat with the margin of 232008 votes by defeating Ramcharitra Nishad from the Samajwadi Party.
Opinion Poll of Purvanchal
The Purvanchal region has 102 seats and is divided among 17 districts including Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh, Mau, Chandauli, Varanasi, etc. According to the Opinion Poll conducted by Zee News-DesignBoxed, the BJP is predicted to get 53-59 seats while Samajwadi Party is likely to bag 39-45 seats of the total 102 in Purvanchal. The BSP and Congress will win 02-05 and 01-02 seats respectively.
In 2017, of the total 104 seats of Purvanchal BJP had secured 35 seats, SP had bagged 22, Congress 05, BSP- 24, and others 14. However, this year, SP is likely to improve its vote share, showed Zee Opinion poll. While BJP is predicted to get a 39% vote share, SP is projected to get 36% vote. BSP, Congress, and others are expected to settle at 11%, 8%, and 6% respectively.
The Phoolan Devi Factor
Phoolan Devi—Bandit queen turned politician is emerging as one of the major poll issues in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. With an eye on Nishad votes, SP president Akhilesh Yadav last year also met Phoolan’s mother, Moola Devi, and sought her blessings. Akhilesh was on the first leg of his ‘Samajwadi Vijay Yatra’ when he took time off to meet Moola Devi who wished him success in the coming elections.
Apart from assuring all help to the family, the SP supremo also promised that he would recommend a CBI inquiry into the Phoolan’s murder if his government is voted to power in UP. In 1996, Phoolan Devi became an MP from the Mirzapur Lok Sabha constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh and was re-elected in 1999. In 2001, she was shot dead outside her Delhi residence. The former MP was popular among the Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in Mirzapur and other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Mirzapur Dominated by Kurmis
As per the poll data, the Mirzapur Vidhan Sabha seat is said to be dominated by Kurmis, also called Patels, a backward caste, who are over 4 lakh-strong across the seat and numerically significant in the entire belt. In the Lok Sabha elections, Mirzapur hasn’t been won by the BJP since 1998 that is why it allied with the Apna Dal in the first place, in the hopes of disrupting the caste dynamics that embraced the specter of SP and BSP.
Mirzapur: Key Things At Glance
- Mirzapur district has 5 Vidhan Sabha seats—Chhanbey, Mirzapur, Majhawan, Chunar, Marihan.
- In 2017, NDA had registered victory on all 5 seats in Mirzapur.
- Of the total 5, BJP had bagged 4—Mirzapur, Majhawan, Chunar, Marihan, while Apna Dal had managed to get 1 Chhanbey.
- Apna Dal is said to be BJP’s biggest ally in UP
- BJP to contest Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in alliance with Apna Dal, Nishad Party.
- Date of Polling in Mirzapur: Monday, 07 March 2022.
- Result Date: Thursday, 10 March 2022.
- Demographically, Mirzapur district has around 91% Hindus, 7.84% Muslims, 0.1% Christian, 0.05% Sikh.
| Hindu | 2,292,534 | (91.81%) | 1,204,871 | 1,087,663 |
| Muslim | 195,765 | (7.84%) | 102,702 | 93,063 |
| Christian | 2,373 | (0.1%) | 1,221 | 1,152 |
| Sikh | 1,133 | (0.05%) | 611 | 522 |
| Buddhist | 341 | (0.01%) | 196 | 145 |
| Jain | 701 | (0.03%) | 383 | 318 |
| Other Religion | 27 | (0%) | 17 | 10 |
| No Religion Specified | 4,096 | (0.16%) | 2,301 | 1,795 |
‘Gaddi par baithne wala kabhi bhi niyam badal sakta hai’, this was said by Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi in the web series ‘Mirzapur’. So will the rules change on March 10? Stay tuned to India.com for all the updates regarding this constituency.
