Lucknow: As campaigning intensifies for the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha election 2024, Mirzapur parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh is a seat to watch out for. While Apna Dal (Sonelal) leader and NDA candidate Anupriya Patel is eyeing a hat-trick from the seat, disgruntled BJP leader Ramesh Chand Bind, who recently joined the SP, was instantly fielded as the INDI Alliance candidate from Mirzapur seat.
Kunda MLA and Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) chief Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya extending support to INDI Alliance candidate Bind has made the contest even more interesting. Ramesh Bind, the sitting BJP MP from Bhadohi joined the SP after he was denied ticket from his seat. After joining the SP, he was fielded by the SP from Mirzapur. Besides Patel and Bind, others contestants in the fray on the Mirzapur seat include Daulat Singh Patel of Apna Dal Kamerawadi and BSP candidate Manish Tiwari. Voting on the seat will be held on June 1 in the seventh and last phase while the counting day is on June 4.
Anupriya Patel has won the Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat twice in 2014 and 2019. In the year 2019, Patel won despite an alliance between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, by securing more than half of the total votes cast. A total of 11,09,059 votes were cast in Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 of which Anupriya got 591,564 votes. SP candidate Ram Charitra Nishad got 3,59,556 votes whereas Lalitesh Pati Tripathi of Congress got 91,501 votes.
As Patel eyes a hat-trick, Kunda MLA Raja Bhaiya seems to be an obstacle in her path. Raja Bhaiya, whose relation with the BJP and Patel has turned sour of late, has announced his support to SP candidate of INDI Alliance Ramesh Chand Bind.
Raja Bhaiya whose influence is visible in Pratapgarh and Kaushambi Lok Sabha seats, may even change the equation in Mirzapur and hurt Anupriya Patel. Sources said that Raja Bhaiya's supporters have camped in Mirzapur to campaign for INDI Alliance candidate Ramesh Chand Bind.
In Mirzapur Lok Sabha seat, there are an estimated 80,000 Kshatriya voters and 1.55 lakh Brahmin voters. If Raja Bhaiya opens a front against Anupriya Patel in Mirzapur, it is certain to split the Kshatriya and Brahmin votes. Meanwhile, INDI Alliance candidate Ramesh Bind is targeting the vote bank of 1.45 lakh Binds, 85,000 Yadavs and around the same number of Muslims which may hurt sitting MP Anupriya Patel.
