Allies, mother-son fighting each other in Allahabad

Pre-poll allies BJP and Apna Dal as well as Congress and Samajwadi Party are fighting each other on some of the 12 Assembly seats in the district while a mother-son contest is also on.

181 candidates are in the fray in the dozen assembly segments in Allahabad that will go to polls on February 23.

Nominations for the assembly seats, the largest number for any single district in Uttar Pradesh, began with issuing of notifications for the fourth phase of polls on January 30.

Allahabad (North), which covers a major part of the city, has the highest number (26) of candidates while Handia in trans-Ganga region of the district has the lowest (9).

A messy, multi-cornered contest is likely in Soraon of trans-Ganga where despite the tie-ups between Congress and SP, and BJP and Apna Dal, their candidates are contesting against their allies besides rival parties.

Congress, which is contesting 105 out of 403 seats in the state, has fielded Jawahar Lal Diwakar from the seat where sitting SP MLA Satyaveer 'Munna' has refused to back out and is seeking re-election.

Jamuna Lal Saroj of Apna Dal is also a candidate here alongside BJP's Surendra Kumar.

The seat has been a cause of a bitter war of words between leaders of both coalition partners of the NDA which is in power in the Centre.

A senior leader of Apna Dal accused state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya of making the seat a "prestige issue".

The regional outfit hopes to do well here owing to a sizeable Kurmi population while the BJP fancies its chances here as the assembly segment forms a part of Maurya's Lok Sabha seat of Phulpur.

In Handia, both wife and son of former state cabinet minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi - Pramila Devi and Prabhat are in the fray.