New Delhi : The upcoming Kairana Lok Sabha by-election in Uttar Pradesh will give indication on whether the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party combine will work once again against the Bhartiya Janata Party as it will give a push to the opposition parties uniting to take on Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Kairana is going to polls on May 28 with three other Lok Sabha constituencies of Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar in Maharashtra and Nagaland. The opposition parties are already emboldened by a similar electoral alliance struck in Maharashtra for three by-elections and six legislative council elections by Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Congress is contesting Palghar seat, leaving Bhandara for the NCP. It is also contesting the Palus-Kadegaon assembly seat in Sangli district of western Maharashtra.
Kairana was won by the BJP in the 2014 elections but the SP-BSP bonhomie will throw up a touch challenge to it as the constituency is dominated by Muslims, Jats and Gujjars.
The BJP intends to field late party MP Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka Singh, hoping that the upper caste and Gujjar voters and the sympathy wave may help her win.
The Muslims constitute around 5 lakh voters in Kairana as against Scheduled Castes 2 lakh, Jats 1.75 lakh and Gujjars 1.2 lakh. This gives advantage to the SP-BSP combine, though the BJP has its own advantage that it had won four of the five Assembly seats in the constituency last year.