Jubilee Post News & Views
Vivek Awasthi
The 2022 assembly election has something interesting that did not take place in the past over a decade. The current chief minister Yogi Adityanath and former CM Akhilesh Yadav both will contest their first assembly election. Yogi from Gorakhpur, from where he had been 5-times MP and Akhilesh from Karhal assembly constituency in Mainpuri district.
Karhal is the same constituency from where Nathu Singh Yadav, a close aid of Mulayam won in 1957. The contest will be interesting due to the fact that after 2004 no one who became chief minister actually contested election but took the MLC seat to hold the chair. It was Mulayam Singh Yadav who had contested and won in 2004 by polls.
To put the number Mulayam Singh won the Gunnaur seat in the by polls and got 195213 votes which was over 91% of the votes polled. He defeated his closest contestant Arif Ali of BSP who got 11314 votes. The performance of both Yogi the current Cm and former CM Akhilesh will be keenly observed by the people in the state. Yogi had become an MP at the age of 26-years.’
If the past three elections are considered then in 2007 BSP made the government and Mayawati become chief minister by becoming the member of Vidhan Parishad.
Next in 2012 Samajwadi Party won elections and Akhilesh Yadav also took to Vidhan Parishad to become the CM of the most populous state of India.
IN 2017 BJP got the power to make government with majority. CM Yogi resigned as MP and took to Vidhan Parishad to become CM. This election however BSP chief Mayawati has decided not to contest elections. She said she will look in to the party affairs only.
Apart from contesting election the two leaders, one in power and the other in opposition, have a herculean task of campaigning too in India’s largest state. While Akhilesh Yadav has been travelling across state for past few months and has the responsibility to carry forward the party’s campaign Yogi has been campaigning extensively in other states too when elections took place and he may be required to travel across UP also once the election commission removes ban from physical rallies after January 23.
For all practical purposes the performance of Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav will be under watch. If their victory is not the big question then the focus will be to put numbers before the names. The figure which shall be in view is the one that was achieved by Mulayam Singh Yadav. And now its time to see who among the two CM faces win and with what margin.
