Though the recently held Uttar Pradesh elections bucked the state's biggest political trend of not allowing any party to form the government twice in succession, some other poll myths only grew stronger. One such trend was — the party that wins Kasganj wins the state.
In Uttar Pradesh, poll watchers believe that the Kasganj assembly segment has been an indicator of which direction the wind is blowing during elections. After March 10, the constituency has acquired the record of electing a lawmaker from the party that goes on to rule the state on 15 (out of 18) occasions. While some call it a good omen, others a plain coincidence.
For the second time, BJP's Devendra Singh won the Kasganj seat. He defeated Samajwadi Party's Man Pal Singh by a margin of 46,265 votes. In 2017 too, Singh had won the constituency by a margin of over 49,000 votes and the BJP had secured a majority in the state assembly. Prior to this, in 2012, SP's Man Pal Singh had won from the Kasganj seat and the Akhilesh Yadav-led party had formed government in the state. Similarly, in the 2007 Uttar Pradesh elections, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party was voted to power with its candidate Hasrat Ullah Sherwani winning the Kasganj seat.
In 2002, SP's Man Pal Singh won from Kasganj but the BJP-BSP coalition formed the government. However, the coalition couldn't continue due to defections and the Samajwadi Party came to power. In 1996, BJP's Netram won the seat and a BJP-BSP government was formed. This was Netram's second consecutive poll victory as he had won the seat in 1991 as well when Kalyan Singh-led BJP formed the government in the state.
In 1989, Janata Dal's Govardhan Singh won Kasganj and Mulayam Singh Yadav's then Janata Dal formed the government. In 1980 and 1985, Congress won the seat and the state. In 1977, Janata Dal's Netram Singh won Kasganj and the party came to power in UP. Going further back, in 1952, Congress' Baburam Gupta won Kasganj and the party ruled the state. Later, in 1957, Congress' Kalicharan Agarwal won and the party came to power in the state.
Thus, barring three aberrations, Kasganj has maintained the tradition of voting for the party that eventually forms the government in the state. Besides Kasganj, other assembly segments in UP that have been known to be lucky for parties are Basti, Sultanpur, Bulandshahr, Alapur, and Meerut.
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