BOOM UP Elections Trail: In Deoband, BJP Pins Hopes On Division of Muslim Votes

Deoband is a part of the Saharanpur district and one of five assembly constituencies in the Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency. Since 2008, this unreserved assembly constituency is numbered 5 amongst 403 constituencies. Samajwadi Party's Rajendra Singh Rana won this constituency by 3,050 votes in the 2012 Assembly elections. Rana passed away in 2015 and the by-poll in February 2016 saw rebel SP candidate Maviya Ali winning the seat on a Congress ticket. Interestingly this time, Maviya Ali has once again switched sides at the last minute and is contesting on an SP ticket.

Too add more twist to the tale, Ali's wife Zahir Fatima is also contesting for the same seat as an independent. But Ali is expected to meet a stiff challenge with the BSP fielding a muslim candidate Majid Ali. Meanwhile, BJP is hoping that a split in the muslim votes between SP and BSP will benefit the party in a traditionally Muslim dominated assembly constituency. Muslims constitute 50.5 per cent of the total population and Hindus 48.5 per cent, with Sikhs, Jains and Christians constituting the rest.

MLA: Maviya Ali (SP)

Education: 12th pass

Key rival candidates: Brijesh Singh(BJP), Majid Ali (BSP), Bhupeshwar Tyagi (RLD)

MLA claim:

Since he had a short run as the MLA, Ali claims that he will work towards improving transportation and cleaning up of the local river.

Voters Speak:

The biggest challenge is to counter the environment of fear, lack of security for women and daylight robberies.

Lack of good roads and frequent power cuts.

MLA is hardly available for the voters

Election Date: 15/02/17

Result Date: 11/03/17

Phase: Phase-2