Parties lay out their poll road map with ticket list in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab

Electioneering in states moved into a crucial phase on Saturday with three parties coming out their first list of candidates in Uttar Pradesh and the Congress in Punjab, giving a fair indication of the road map of their electoral plans.

In Uttar Pradesh, all major players BJP, BSP and Congress have named candidates for 107, 125, 53 and 29 seats respectively while Congress released candidates for 86 seats for Punjab.

In Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal was first to announce candidates last month itself, giving one-fourth of seats to newcomers.

Unlike UP, where Congress has made a big pitch for women empowerment, it has given tickets to only four women in the first list of Punjab, which is less than 5 per cent of the total number of candidates declared. In UP, Congress had given 40 per cent (50 of 125) to women.

Raising eyebrows, BJP has fielded 13 of 19 Dalit candidates from Mayawati's community Jatav in UP amid speculation of some senior leaders of BSP joining the BJP in days to come. Indications are that amid the perception of BSP being on a weak wicket gaining ground, the saffron party has planned a large number of Dalit candidates from general seats. BSP, which came out with the list of 53 candidates on Saturday, has fielded 14 Muslim candidates mostly in Western UP, which could pose difficulties for the BSP-RLD alliance, which has fielded 8 Muslims of the 29 seats they declared for the Western UP.

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By giving Jat candidates 16 seats in Western UP, the BJP has indicated that it has not given up the community, which has backed it big in the last three elections in the state and will try to win their confidence despite the year-long-farm agitation having shocked its root support in the region and the alliance of SP and RLD proving a mammoth challenge.

Most of the Muslim candidates have found nominations from the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, which is attempting to go beyond its Muslim-Yadav base especially in Eastern Uttar Pradesh by inducting a number of non-Yadav backward class leaders and Brahmins.

While the SP is banking big on Kushwaha votes in eastern and central UP after poaching prominent Koiri leader Swami Prasad Maurya and his supporting MLAs from the BJP, the saffron party has tried to defeat the SP in their game by fielding a number of Kushwaha leaders in the first list. Even the BSP has fielded several Kushwaha leaders.

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The impact of Maurya's exit has been felt in BJP, which was planning to deny tickets to almost 50 per cent of its sitting MLAs. The caution in BJP's approach is now visible with only 20 new faces among the candidates of 83 constituencies won by it in the last election. Keeping winnability the main criteria, the BJP has given tickets to only 10 per cent of women in the first list while among the "upper castes", the maximum candidates are from CM Yogi's community Thakurs, followed by Brahmins. More Brahmins could ticket in eastern UP later.

Both the national parties have been a bit lackadaisical in announcing candidates for the hill station Uttarakhand, which is a switch state having seen power alternating between Congress and BJP. Candidates can be announced next week in Uttarakhand, where the BJP is seeking to fight anti-incumbency after changing three chief ministers and the Congress backing veteran Harish Rawat despite some reservations and intensifying factionalism.

Congress faces similar dissension in Goa while the ruling BJP is mulling changing the number of sitting MLAs.

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