Top contests of 2014: Varun Gandhi vs Amita Singh vs others

Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh), May 5: The BJP is eyeing to wrest back Sultanpur constituency after a long gap of 16 years. The party has fielded

, the sitting MP from Philibit which has gone to his mother Maneka Gandhi, from this seat against

's Amita Singh and

's Pawan Pandey. There are in all 15 candidates contesting from this seat.

2009 results: Congress's Sanjay Singh defeated BSP's Mohd Tahir by 98,779 votes (difference in vote-share was 14%).

Sultanpur will go to the election on May 7.

About Varun Gandhi (BJP)

Varun, 34, a member of India's first political family, joined the BJP in 2004 and became the youngest general secretary of the party in June 2013. The son of late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, Varun had won from Philibit constituency by a whopping 2.8 lakh votes and was shifted to Sultanpur this time to throw a challenge to the Congress, which had won it between 1952 and 1984 and again in 2009.

The BJP is banking on Gandhi-Modi combination to pull off a win in Sultanpur

Varun Gandhi, who was credited as the only MP to have used cent per cent of the MPLAD funds for development, was brought to fight from Sultanpur mainly to connect to the youth and also rake up the sentimental attachment that his father once had with this place.

"Sultanpur me chali andhi, Varun Gandhi..Varun Gandhi", the thunderous sloganeering in the constituency by the young BJP supporters when Varun Gandhi came here for campaigning in February this year indicates at the mood there.

About Amita Singh (Congress)

Amita Singh, known as Raani Sahiba, was nominated from this constituency after his husband and the sitting MP, Dr Sanjay Singh, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha a few months ago. It will be an immense challenge for Amita Singh for local forces like the SP and BSP have also fielded strong candidates who are campaigning with full intensity. The Congress had lost all the assembly segments of Sultanpur in the 2012 state elections, something which will add more the Congress's woes.

About Pawan Pandey (BSP)

Pawan Pandey, 38, a former Shiv Sena leader, is a Brahmin leader accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case and has 32 criminal cases against them, including charges of murder, attempt to murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc.

About Shakeel Ahmed (SP)

The SP hasn't let Sultanpur go like it did in case of the adjacent seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli and its candidate Shakeel Ahmed, 48, a tyre and petroleum-product treader by profession, is eyeing Muslim votes.

Analysis:

Sultanpur presents an interesting situation. While the BJP is banking on the Gandhi-Modi combination to win this seat back (it had won this seat thrice between 1991 and 1998), the Congress and SP are eyeing a slice each in the Muslim vote-bank and the BSP is believing that the Dalit-Brahmin combination will work in its favour (Sultanpur has a sizeable Dalit population while the BSP candidate is a Brahmin). The Congress is also hoping that the loyalty factor of the Raja Saheb works in favour of the Raani Saheba.

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