It would be worth mentioning here that 59 seats of this phase are in 16 districts belonging to Central UP and Bundelkhand.

Riding on hindutva wave BJP won 49 seats out of total number of 59 seats in 2017 assembly polls while Samajwadi Party could win only nine and one Congress. Sigificantly , BSP could not open it's account in these constituencies.

Now BJP is facing challenge from Akhilesh Yadav and his alliance to retain it's seats and on the other hand the prestige of Samajwadi Party is at stake in Yadav land.

Ever since Mulayam Singh Yadav formed Samajwadi Party he had been winning to Lok Sabha and assembly from this region. Later on his family members including brother Shivpal Yadav, son Akhilesh Yadav, daughter in law Dimple Yadav, nephew Dharmendra Yadav and grandson Tej Pratap Yadav dominated and reached Lok Sabha and assembly from different constituency.

Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav is now contesting from Karhal assembly constituency in Mainpuri having a large population of Yadav. He is being challenged by Union Minister SP Singh Baghel from BJP. Baghel was personal security officer of Mulayam Singh Yadav when he was CM.

Massive response to Akhilesh Yadav in Bundelkhand during his Vijay Rath Yatra surprised not only BJP leaders but media persons and political commentators.

During his campaign Akhilesh Yadav is raising the issues of inflation, unemployment, mismanagement in corona handling by the government and lack of development in the area especially in Bundelkhand.

Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of defence corridor in Bundelkhand promised by the central government to change destiny of the region. He also questioned about the promise made by UP CM Yogi Adiyanath that Jhansi and adjoining areas would be linked with Expressway.

Former CM also raised the issue of investment summit held in Lucknow where it was claimed that there was commitment of bringing Rs five lakh crores and creating employment opportunities to poor people in the state.

BJP not only mobilised all resources at its disposal to campaign for party candidates but also brought PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adiyanath who addressed meetings in different constituencies of third phase.

During his election meetings PM Narendra Modi raised the issues of democracy, secularism, law and order and mafia to blame Samajwadi Party during it's previous regime. He calimed that a large number of muslim women were voting to BJP as they were happy with ban on triple talaaq.

Sigificantly Union Minister Amit Shah raised the issue of ED raid on perfume manufacturers in Kannauj where cash worth over Two hundred crores rupees was recovered. He alleged that those perfume manufacturers had links with Samajwadi Party.

BSP national President Mayawati is also very serious in Bundelkhand region due to good presence of dalits. Before 2017 BSP had won good number of seats from Bundelkhand. Addressing meetings Mayawati accused BJP of giving work to private contractors depriving dalits work opportunities. She further said that people were being harassed in the name of caste and religion during BJP regime.

Although Congress won only one seat in this phase in last election but AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi addressed series of public meetings, door to door campaign and road show in Bundelkhand and appealed to voters to oust BJP which had no vision for development.

Caste will play very important role in this phase as BJP leadership is banking on mobilising non-yadav and non-jatav backwards and dalits through ticket distribution and campaign.

BJP is also banking on support from lodh rajput backward community which plays important role in several districts because of its presence. Former chief minister of UP late Kalyan Singh, a lodh rajput had great hold over his community.

Now it is to be seen whether social engineering of Akhilesh Yadav and his alliance with different castes win or Amit Shah's experiment of non-yadav and non-jatavs combination gets support from upper caste and dominate the polling in third phase. (IPA Service)