BHOPAL: Many candidates from families settled in Mumbai are in the election fray in east UP. Most such candidates, contesting from BSP, Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party, Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and Congress, are contesting from Jaunpur, Prayagraj, Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadohi), Pratapgarh, Amethi and Ghazipur districts. A large part of these UP districts have their economies directly connected to Mumbai, as thousands from these districts earn livelihood from variegated professions, businesses there.
Leading these candidates is twice elected Samajwadi Party MLA from Saidpur (SC) seat of Ghazipur district, Subhash Pasi, who is now with the ruling BJP and is contesting from Nishad Party, a saffron party ally. In Ghazipur district, the Mohamdabad seat, the BSP has fielded Manvendra Rai, who reportedly has stakes in Mumbai’s real estate sector. He is among the three Bhumihar caste candidates in the fray from the seat. His rivals are ruling BJP’s sitting MLA Alka Rai and Congress’ Arvind Kishore Rai.
In the adjoining Jaunpur district, the Mariyahu seat (often nicknamed as mini-Mumbai owing to its large population based in the Maharashtra capital) has two candidates having the Mumbai connect. While BSP candidate Anand Dubey has business stakes in Pune and Mumbai, VIP candidate Ashok Singh heads a forwarding and clearing agency in Mumbai.
In the same district, Nishad Party candidate Ramesh Kumar Singh is the son of former Apna Dal (S) MP and Mumbai-based builder Kunwar Harivansh Singh. Ex-All India Congress Minority Department head Nadim Javed is in the fray from the Jaunpur (Sadar) seat which he won in 2012, but lost to BJP in 2017. Nadim Javed’s father Dr Javed Ahmad is a senior Congress politician in Mumbai.
In the adjoining Prayagraj district, Karan Singh, who runs a mineral water plant in Mumbai, is contesting as an Independent. In 2017, he lost by only 2000-plus votes as Apna Dal (S) candidate from Pratappur seat. In the neighbouring Pratapgarh district, BSP candidate from Raniganj seat Ajay Yadav runs a hospital in Prayagraj, but was born and brought up at Mira Road area of Mumbai. He was recently in Mumbai and adjoining Thane to campaign among east UP residents, who are either voters or have relatives as voters in Raniganj.
And the story doesn’t end there, but stretches up to Amethi district, as the BSP candidate from Gauriganj, Ram Lakhan Shukla’s father Keshav Shukla is an investment banker based in Mumbai’s Powai and Vile Parle area. Even in Varanasi district, the first-time sitting BJP MLA from Pindra, Avdhesh Singh has a strong Mumbai connect. He is believed to have got the BJP ticket again with the help of former Maharashtra home minister Kripa Shankar Singh.
The ex-Maharashtra minister, who is believed to have been keen on getting a BJP ticket for his daughter from Jaunpur Sadar, has campaigned for the sitting BJP MLA in Pindra recently. Even politicians who failed to click in Maharashtra politics have revived their political career in east UP.
Subhash Pasi, the twice SP MLA from Saidpur in Ghazipur district, now in the fray with BJP’s support was a youth Congress leader in Mumbai in early 1990s. He, however, clicked electorally in 2017 and 2022 UP polls from Saidpur seat of native Ghazipur district. He is now a BJP-supported candidate from the same seat and has Bhojpuri star Dinesh Yadav ‘Nirahua’ campaigning for him.