After BJP nominated a five-time legislator Satish Mahana, and the BSP played the Brahmin card by fielding Sukhdha Mishra, Jaiswal was banking on Muslim and Vaishya votes. But by nominating Agarwal, the SP has poured cold water over Jaiswal’s plan to get votes from the trading community. Agarwal is likely to extract a major chunk of Muslim votes too.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a confident Agarwal took swipe at the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. “Our fight in the Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency is directly with the BJP as the Congress candidate (Shriprakash Jaiswal) is nowhere in the race,” Agarwal said.

Citing the results of the 1998 Lok Sabha elections — when he had managed to come second with two lakh votes ahead of Jaiswal, who secured 80,000 votes — Agarwal said, “Jaiswal, who was contesting on a Congress ticket, could hardly make his presence felt.”

Agarwal added that during the last general elections, Jaiswal had a narrow escape as he won by a narrow margin of 5,448 votes. And this time, the voters are strongly against him, he said. “Plans and policies of the Samajwadi Party have been appreciated by Muslims, Vaishyas and other sections of the society. Therefore, they will vote in our favour,” he added.

Jaiswal, on the other hand, said the presence of Agarwal in the race would hardly make any difference to his election campaign. “In the 2004 elections, I got 34.12 per cent of the total votes polled and the figure is likely to improve further this time,” he claimed. He launched a scathing attack on both the SP and BJP for lack of development in Kanpur. “BJP’s candidate Mahana has twice served the post of Minister of State for Urban Development but what has he done for Kanpur? Similarly, Kanpur was completely ignored during the SP’s rule in Uttar Pradesh,” he said. He added that people will vote for him on the basis of his development work in Kanpur.

Jaiswal’s other headache is his old rival who has been nominated by the BJP. “Last time, we had faced each other in the 1991 Assembly elections when we contested from the Cantonment seat. Then Jaiswal had lost his deposit and I emerged victorious,” said Mahana. He accused Jaiswal of ignoring the people of Kanpur. “In his tenure of 10 years as parliamentarian he failed to get the road opposite his house constructed. Therefore, not much should be expected from him,” he added.

Amid this, BSP candidate Sukhdha Mishra feels that it is the best opportunity for his party to win the Kanpur seat for the first time.

“The kind of support we are receiving from people, there is no doubt of BSP’s victory in Kanpur,” she said.

Minister meets Amar Singh
New Delhi: Union Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal met SP leader Amar Singh at his residence on Wednesday. This after the SP changed its stand of not fielding a candidate against Jaiswal in his constituency — Kanpur. Though Jaiswal termed the meeting as personal, he is learnt to have requested Singh to withdraw the candidate against him.

When asked about the purpose of his visit, Jaiswal said it was to “seek advice on various political issues”. “Amar Singhji is a senior politician. I came here to seek his advice. We discussed the political situation,” he said. Jaiswal denied he had come to Singh’s house on the directives of the party. “The issue of seat sharing was not discussed. I am not authorised to do so.” he added.

Earlier, the SP had declared it will not field candidates against Congress ministers Jitin Prasada and Jaiswal, party chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi, even if the alliance between the two parties did not materialise.

The party had, however, declared its candidate against Prasada soon after Congress leader Arjun Singh criticised the SP for its pact with Kalyan Singh. Later, when Congress in-charge of UP, Digvijay Singh said all options were open after the polls — which the SP took as an indication for second track negotiations with the BSP — it had announced a candidate against Jaiswal. - ENS