Deoria to host Modi rally 6 months after Rahul’s ‘khat sabha’!

Now with 5 phases of the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll behind us, the spectre of election razzmatazz shifts hammer and tongs to Eastern UP districts bordering Bihar and Jharkhand.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address two election rallies in Maharajganj and Deoria districts tomorrow.

Interestingly, Deoria was the first port of call for Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi about six months back to roll out his series of ‘khat sabha’ rural backwater meetings in run up to the 2017 UP election.

The concept of ‘khat sabha’ was devised by poll strategist Prashant Kishor for the revival of Congress in the crucial state of UP, after having experienced political wilderness in the state for 27 years.

At that juncture, Congress had yet not firmed up a pre-poll alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and was ready to fight UP poll all alone with its punch-line of ‘27 saal, UP behaal’.

Congress re-jigged its poll strategy and aligned with SP to forge a joint front against BJP. Besides, SP was looking for a suitable partner to fend off the stiff challenge posed by BJP and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The party was also afflicted with power feud and infighting at that time.

Meanwhile, polling is slated across 49 assembly segments comprising 7 districts in the 6^th phase, including Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh, Mau and Ballia.

The candidates in this phase include SP turncoats and now BSP candidates Ambika Chaudhary and Narad Rai, Ram Govind Chaudhary, Durga Yadav, Surya Pratap Shahi, Shaqir Ali, Fateh Bahadur Singh etc. Mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari is also contesting from Mau as BSP nominee.

The last phase polling is due on March 8 in 40 assembly constituencies across 7 districts, including Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Sonbhadra and Jaunpur. The votes would be counted on March 11.

Donkey beats Elephant in UP poll!

2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly poll is undoubtedly as much about the common man’s agenda as it is about animals!

Perhaps it is the only election in the country, which is characterised by the top political leaders playing up themes weaved around four legged creatures, mostly domesticated and congenial varieties.

Inimitably, this poll has in the process popularised one of the most unglamourous animals to have walked this planet, the innocuous looking donkey, who brays without any rhyme or reason.

Elephant, the election symbol of Mayawati ‘behanji’ led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), has erstwhile been the ‘resident’ animal for most frequent direct references in election speeches in this part of the country during elections.

However, the humble donkey has browbeaten the mammoth creature by a handsome margin to trend as the top ranked animal, both in real time canvassing and also virtually over social media platforms.

Donkey, first broke into the popularity chart, when UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav during one of his election rallies in the ongoing electioneering invoked it to slur his biggest adversary and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mascot Narendra Modi.

Akhilesh made explicit reference to a Gujarat Tourism TV ad featuring Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, wherein the Millennium Actor had through his baritone voice exhorted tourists to visit the Gujarat wildlife reserve famous for un-harnessed donkeys.

The UP CM advised Bachchan to refrain from associating with such ads, which were centred around donkeys of Gujarat. This rather unwitting statement, which subsequently proved to be a guffaw, was reckoned as distasteful and below the belt by the skeptics and social media hawks.

Much to his chagrin, Modi later took the caustic comment in his stride and instead used it to flay Akhilesh, saying the UP CM was now even scared of donkeys inhabiting hundreds of kilometres away.

Ever since, the donkey analogy has made regular appearances in the political discourses and election speeches. It has evoked cryptic reactions, inspired TV spoofs, cartoons and what not.

To add more glory to this list, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has now discovered another mammal to correlate his political message by invoking rat to target Modi. Gandhi, who is in line to take over as the Congress’ president, said Modi’s heart was as fragile as a rat.

Even as the UP poll advances towards conclusion, voters can safely look forward to more such hilarious sounding similes and metaphors…taking direct inspiration from animals!!!

Modi-propelled BJP gaining traction in UP poll

Even as Uttar Pradesh poll is already past the halfway mark, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be gaining traction in the state election, primarily propelled by its biggest mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

So far, polling in 262 of the total 403 assembly seats across 50 UP districts have been held in 4 phases, while polling in the rest 141 seats in 30 districts remains.

The UP election, which had kicked off as a triangular contest between BJP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party-Congress combine, is now mutating with BJP entangled in only bipolar contest with either Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in individual constituencies.

Modi has been addressing back-to-back election rallies across constituencies on a regular basis and these events get high octane media coverage, besides BJP’s own publicity organ characteristically goes the extra mile to leverage it for maximum impact and optics.

Last year, pre-poll surveys had projected BJP as the leading party for 2017 UP poll. However, demonetisation had altered these dynamics, making it rather hazy to predict the poll outcome in the backdrop of the hardships faced by the people, including the traditional voting bloc of BJP viz. small traders and urban middle class.

In this context, the pre-poll SP-Congress alliance before UP election had indicated these parties getting jittery at the probable election result, since the other prominent regional political force, BSP, was also contesting for a triangular fight.

Earlier, Congress had been readying to fight UP poll on its own and had commissioned political strategist Prashant Kishor to get over its political wilderness of almost 3 decades in the state. Yet, Congress allied with SP at the 11^th hour with the express motive of keeping BJP away from power, which showed BJP still posed a potent challenge to them.

With state polling beginning from western UP districts on February 11, the picture was still obscure. In fact, BSP was projected by political pundits to be leading its peers then.

However, as polling progressed to the central region of UP in subsequent phases, the poll tempo started to fall the BJP’s way helped by Modi’s rallies, his oratory skills, hard hitting political messages etc.

Meanwhile, the victory of BJP in all the local bodies poll across the country, including Chandigarh, Odisha and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), have indicated people had supported demonetisation as a fight against black money and corruption. The narrative built by BJP around demonetisation had worked.

The pre-poll pact of SP-Congress has also not been able to generate the expected synergies at the ground level. Several SP leaders and even ministers have already explicitly or implicitly spoken against the alliance.

Akhilesh is fighting UP poll without the support of his father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav following a bitter power feud.

On the other hand, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has so far stayed away from UP poll and did not even campaign in her parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also visited the constituency only once.

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Rae Bareli emerges from Sonia Gandhi’s charisma!

Rae Bareli, the constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is witnessing crucial polling today in all the six assembly seats comprising the ‘VIP’ district, in the 4^th phase of Uttar Pradesh election.

Interestingly, this is the only time when Rae Bareli is voting without Sonia coming down for campaign even once.

Rae Bareli and Amethi are the traditional pocket borough of the Gandhi family and represented in the Lok Sabha by Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi respectively.

To make amends, Sonia had instead issued a letter for Rae Bareli electorate lamenting her absence from electioneering this time due to unavoidable circumstance. Her letter had appealed people to vote the party candidates while reminding them of their long and mutual bond.

Meanwhile, the 4^th phase polling is underway across 53 assembly constituencies in 12 districts of the Bundelkhand and Eastern UP regions.

The poll bound districts are Allahabad, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Rae Bareli, apart from 7 district consisting Bundelkhand viz. Lalitpur, Jhansi, Jaluan, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda and Chitrakoot. A total of 680 candidates are in fray in this phase.

Prominent contestants include UP ministers Raghuraj Pratap Singh, Manoj Pandey, Shivkant Ojha, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari’s daughter Aradhana Mishra, BSP turncoat and BJP leader Swami Prasad Maurya’s son Utkarsh Maurya, Anugrah Narain Singh, Ujjawal Raman Singh etc.

Congress, which has a pre-poll alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in UP, is contesting 25 of the 53 seats in this phase. The party is contesting 9 seats of the total 19 assembly constituencies in Bundelkhand, which had voted 4 Congress leaders to UP Vidhan Sabha in 2012 poll.

Besides, Congress is engaged in ‘friendly fights’ with SP in many constituencies in Rae Bareli, Allahabad, Lalitpur and Fatehpur districts.

The assembly poll in UP are being held in seven phases on February 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, March 4 and 8. The state election had crossed halfway mark on February 19, when third phase had concluded, since elections to more than half of the total 403 state assembly constituencies had been completed.

The counting of votes would be held on March 11 for all five poll bound states of UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

UP poll scene is still fluid and there are no clear indications as to the winning formation. However, the poll has now shaped up as ‘Modi versus others’ with the principal opposition parties mounting scathing attacks on BJP mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in public meetings.

Mulayam joins Priyanka in ‘Exclusive Campaigners Club’!

Burying their long running political differences and bickering, the ruling Samajwadi Party and Congress had forged a pre-poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh to keep both BJP and BSP at bay.

The alliance was necessitated for their political buoyancy in the backdrop of BJP then being projected to lead UP poll following surgical strikes across the LoC and later demonetisation.

Even as the SP-Congress alliance is keeping firm barring a few assembly seats where the two parties are locked in ‘friendly fights’, the two parties boast of a tall figure in their respective kitty, who has so far campaigned only selectively!

SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have campaigned for their respective party candidates only in select constituencies.

So far, Mulayam has only campaigned for his kin, including his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav and daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who is the wife of the SP founder’s younger son Prateek.

On February 11 and 13, Mulayam had addressed public meetings in Jaswantnagar assembly constituency of Etawah district from where Shivpal is contesting. On February 15, Mulayam sought votes for Aparna, who is contesting from Lucknow Cantonment constituency against sitting legislator Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

Both Jaswantnagar and Lucknow Cantonment constituencies witnessed polling in the third phase on Feb 19.

Priyanka, who was earlier projected to be the star campaigner for Congress, has campaigned only on February 17, when she addressed a public meeting in Rae Bareli, the traditional pocket boroughs of the Gandhi family.

Sonia and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi represent Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively in Lok Sabha respectively.

However, the reasons for Mulayam and Priyanka confining themselves to select meetings are divergent.

Mulayam was ousted as the SP president this year. With chief minister Akhilesh Yadav taking over the reigns of SP, Mulayam does not wield much influence in the party and the state government in the current power dynamics.

While, Mulayam himself had decided against canvassing for candidates, the SP candidates have also been unenthusiastic on ‘Netaji’ electioneering for the fear of the socialist leader taking a different position on key issues and possibly spoiling their electoral chances.

On the other hand, Priyanka, whom a section of Congress leaders want to portray a larger political role, has shied away from poll rigmarole. Her activism in the party could set up unwanted comparisons with her elder brother Rahul Gandhi, who is being groomed to replace Sonia as the party president.

Bollywood biopic on Mulayam shelved!

A Bollywood biopic planned on Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and planned to be released in 2016 has been shelved.

Mulayam was unceremoniously ousted as SP president last month following a bitter power feud in the Uttar Pradesh government, SP and the ruling Yadav clan.

The biographical film titled ‘Neta ji: Mulayam Singh Yadav’ on the septuagenarian leader was announced at a hotel in Lucknow on August 12, 2015 in the presence of several SP leaders, including from his native Saifai village.

Proposed to be made on a budget of Rs 30 crore, the silver screen caper was then projected to be completed and commercially launched around September 2016. Ever since, there has been no news about the project nor was it released subsequently.

The launch ceremony was also graced by then powerful Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and Mulayam’s younger brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav, who had unveiled the film’s poster as well.

The film was planned to be released in both Hindi and English languages and the concept had the blessings of the Yadav family, film’s director Vivek Dixit said.

The biopic would have etched Mulayam’s journey from Saifai village in Etawah as a poor agricultural family boy to finally rising up the ranks and becoming the chief minister of UP in 1989. Mulayam has been the CM for three terms altogether.

The film was launched under the banner of Godfather Films and Shilpa Motion Works, Mumbai and was to be produced by the trio of Sandeep Shukla, Sarvjit Sigh and Vivek Dixit.

Dixit had noted he was influenced by Mulayam’s persona and his film would reflect the hitherto unknown facets of his personality and toils.

While the film’s star cast was still not final, the names Rahul Bose and Raghuvir Yadav had been doing the rounds as the likely Bollywood actors to essay the title role.

Interestingly, paeans have in the past been dedicated to Mulayam, including in the form of a ‘Chalisa’ (40-verse rhythmic poetry) to eulogise him and his regimes.

As things stand today, the fate of the film is unknown and the project has probably been shelved for good.

UP poll: Caste, religion dynamics to crown winner

Uttar Pradesh is a virtual melting pot of different castes and religions!

In the backdrop of 2017 assembly poll underway, it is the dynamics of castes, sub-castes and religions and their play and interplay, which would determine the electoral results expected on March 11 after conclusion of the 7-phase polling in the state.

While, all political parties have been claiming of getting majority at the hustings and winning over 300 seats purely on issues of development, the reality is these parties are well aware of the vitality of consolidating voters on emotive issues through positive and/or negative messages by invoking fear and apprehensions among communities.

The issues revolving around the dynamics of caste and community are cleverly incorporated in the poll strategies of all the main political formations in UP viz. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party-Congress.

On their part, BSP and SP-Congress are making impassioned appeals to minorities to support them in order to prevent BJP from ascending the power ladder.

Both BSP and SP-Congress have given 25 percent of party tickets to Muslims although the community account for about 18 percent of the population. The minorities are reckoned as an important voting bloc largely due to the perception of the community voting en bloc for a particular party/alliance.

The two parties/alliances are hoping to get major chunk of the minorities votes by raking emotional issues and incidents to warn the community against BJP with a view to consolidating this segment.

BSP has inducted mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to underline its pro-minority stand, although BSP president Mayawati had in the past expelled him from the party. The Ansaris enjoy considerable clout amongst the community in some Eastern UP districts.

Mayawati has cautioned Muslims against voting for SP-Congress claiming SP was fragmented following the long power struggle, while Congress was weak. This way, she warns Muslims to shun SP and vote for BSP as division of minorities vote would benefit BJP.

Meanwhile, SP, in order to confuse the Muslim voters, has alleged BSP could join hands with BJP to form the next state government after poll. However, Mayawati has refuted this allegation as a conspiracy against her party.

Although, BJP has not fielded any Muslim candidate, its leaders have claimed the party worked for the betterment of all communities irrespective of caste and religion.

The explicit urge to corner the minorities votes by BSP and SP-Congress have the potency to invoke counter-polarisation of Hindu votes and thus help BJP. BJP has raised issues like ‘triple talaq’, migration from western UP towns and illegal abattoirs to appeal to the middle class voters.

Demonetisation is hot topic in UP campaign trail

Agriculture and allied sectors contribute about 25 percent to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Uttar Pradesh, while supporting direct and indirect livelihood of 70 percent of population.

However, topics related to agriculture and farmers have taken a virtual backseat in campaigning by major political parties in run up to the UP poll, which is underway with two of the seven phases already over.

In this backdrop, the hot topics lapped up by politicos for addressing their constituency are demonetisation, law and order, minorities’ rights’ etc.

Ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) president and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has been quite vocal in attacking BJP mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly thrusting demonetisation on people and causing hardships. He has been exhorting voters to teach BJP a lesson in this poll for their miseries.

While, the CM makes references to agriculture and pronounces his pro-agro policies, he surely reserves the diatribe against Modi over demonetisation.

On the other hand, Modi has always mentioned demonetisation as a decisive and planned step to clamp down on black money and illegal economy. He has claimed that the step had only caused consternation amongst the corrupt, while the honest had no reason to worry.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati has also been vociferous in firing salvos on the Modi government for demonetisation.

Interestingly, sugarcane, which supports about 5 million farmers in the state and generates economy worth over Rs 30,000 crore through sugar, ethanol, spirits, power, gur etc, is largely missing in election speeches by the political top guns.

Congress, which has sealed a pre-poll alliance with SP, had to suddenly change its strategy of not going solo in this poll, although it had initially started to rally support of farmers in the state last year to gain momentum.

UP election to inject Rs 1,700 crore in economy

Uttar Pradesh assembly poll is likely to inject almost Rs 1,700 crore of accounted expenditure in the state economy by the candidates through their canvassing and electioneering.

This figure has been deduced by taking 2012 UP poll as base, when about 6,800 candidates had contested the state election for the 403 legislative assembly seats.

For 2017, the Election Commission (EC) has fixed poll expenses ceiling of Rs 28 lakh on individual candidates compared to Rs 16 lakh for 2012 election, a hike of 75 percent.

Taking the conservative figure of 6,000 candidates contesting UP poll spread over 7 phases this time round and multiplying it by the ceiling fixed by EC, the cumulative accounted expenditure by all candidates touches Rs 1,680 crore.

There was a jump of over 52 percent in the number of candidates fighting 2012 UP poll compared to 2007, when 4,487 candidates had represented different parties or contested as independents.

However, the candidates’ actual poll spend is usually much higher than EC ceiling and has been estimated at 5-10 times by different experts. The candidates seeking election incur towards volunteers and party workers, besides expending for publicity, canvassing, vehicles, election office, snacks, tents etc.

The actual spend in accounted money could still be higher, since political parties have the leeway to legitimately expend towards rallies and public meetings to support their candidates. This expenditure account is audited separately from the respective candidates’ expenditure.

Meanwhile, it has to be borne in mind that demonetisation has to some extent impacted liberal availability of cash in the economy and thus check unaccounted funds finding its way to poll.

Besides, demonetisation could also limit the number of candidates contesting as independents. The actual impact would, however, could be ascertained only post election.

The UP election is being held in 7 phases with scattered voting between February 11 and March 8, 2017. Nearly150 million electorates are eligible to cast vote.

The counting of votes would be held on March 11 for all the five poll bound states viz. UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

Valentine's Day and 2017 UP poll

While a large part of the world, including India, observes the Valentine's Day today (Feb 14), there is certainly no love lost between the top political leaders representing different parties of the country, who have been crisscrossing Uttar Pradesh and campaigning for the assembly polls!

UP sugarcane payments hit Rs 10,000 crore mark

Uttar Pradesh sugar mills have paid over Rs 10,000 crore to farmers against sugarcane procurement under the current 2016-17 crushing season, which is still underway.

The payments have been made against payables of about Rs 13,100 crore for 2016-17, which pegs payment ratio higher than 75 percent.

Besides, UP sugar mills have collectively settled Rs 17,635 crore against dues of a little over Rs 18,000 crore for the previous 2015-16 crushing season. The balance of about Rs 368 crore is pending on 13 private sugar mills.

Meanwhile, the UP mills have collectively clocked production of over 5 million tonnes (MT) of sugar in the current season. The mills are projected to produce almost 3.5 MT of additional sugar before the crushing season concludes, which would peg sugar output at roughly 8.5 MT for full season.

Sugarcane is a major cash crop in UP and there are over 4 million rural households engaged in cane farming. UP and Maharashtra are India’s top sugarcane and sugar producers and contribute 50 percent to India’s annual production.

This season, UP is likely to contribute almost 40 percent to the country’s sugar output.

The private mills dominate UP sugar sector with 92 of total 117 mills. The cooperative sector comprises 24 mills, while UP State Sugarcane Corporation Limited (UPPSCL) controls one mill.

With UP government fixing cane price at Rs 305/quintal, the value of cane procurement by mills is likely to exceed Rs 22,500 crore in the current season. This way, the total payment would be 25 percent more than the total value of cane payables registered by all the 117 UP sugar mills in the previous 2015-16, which had then stood at Rs 18,000 crore.

Festival of Democracy: UP goes to poll tomorrow

The poll pitch in Uttar Pradesh has reached crescendo and the India’s largest state is to witness first phase of polling across 73 assembly constituencies spanning 15 districts in Western UP tomorrow.

UP phase I poll bound districts are Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Etah and Kasganj.

In this phase, 839 candidates are trying their luck at the hustings. Poll campaigning in these constituencies had culminated last evening, which wrapped up the whirlwind electioneering by top leaders of all political parties in fray, including BJP, BSP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress.

BJP had swept poll during 2014 Lok Sabha election drawing from ‘Modi wave’. This time, BSP and SP-Congress alliance has made the contest triangular.

Muslims comprise a sizeable chunk of the Western UP population and their voting pattern would largely determine the poll outcome. Their consolidation in favour of either BSP or SP-Congress alliance would hit BJP and their division would on the other hand brighten BJP’s poll chances.

In their public meetings, both, BSP and SP-Congress have vociferously been claiming to champion issues of minorities and luring them to their fold.

However, the situation is more or less fluid and there are no clear winners and losers among parties as they stand today.

Sonia, Mulayam missing from UP politicking

Virendra Singh Rawat

The top leaders of both Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress viz. Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sonia Gandhi are completely missing form the Uttar Pradesh poll campaign trail.

Both Mulayam and Sonia are reckoned as trail blazers so far as campaigning and drumming up support for their party candidates is concerned. In all the previous elections, they had been at the forefront of canvassing and most visible in all the party banners and publicity materials.

Besides, they would be most sought after star campaigners for their parties.

In their absence, the immediate second most senior leader in their respective parties viz. Akhilesh Yadav (SP) and Rahul Gandhi have taken up the cudgels on behalf of their outfits and slugging it out in the campaign trail.

This is not only an indication of the scheme of things to come in near future, it also reaffirms the passing on the baton to the new leadership in their parties.

UP airports projects remained grounded under Akhilesh rule

Virendra Singh Rawat

In his public meetings and press interactions, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav always loves to talk about the mega road infrastructure projects taking wings under his almost five years rule.

These projects chiefly include Agra-Lucknow Expressway, which is already operational and the proposed Lucknow-Ballia Expressway, apart from the ongoing projects to link all the 75 districts in UP with four-lane highways to improve connectivity and boost tourism and economy.

However, there have been several international airports projects that have remained grounded for the last several years, away from the public glare.

These airports had been proposed under the successive rules of Mayawati and Akhilesh to spur tourism and provide direct air links between major tourist spots. The prominent among these proposed airports projects include Kushinagar and Jewar, which have witnessed no action despite initial groundwork.

The state had proposed to develop international aviation hubs at Kushinagar, Jewar near Greater Noida (Gautam Budh Nagar district) and Agra, yet nothing fructified, which indicates the government apathy to pursue these projects.

Kushinagar airport

Kushingar international airport was initially estimated at Rs 354 crore under public private partnership (PPP) mode. In January 2014, the Akhilesh cabinet cleared the project under Design Build Finance Operate Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The bidders, who had previously qualified technical bid stage in March 2013, included GMR, Essel, Gammon India etc. The state had even acquired 550 acres of land. The proposed airport with 3,200 metre runway was projected to cater to 2,50,000 tourists annually.

It was touted as India’s first airport wherein the Centre had given in-principle approval for viability gap funding (VGF) of 20 per cent. An additional 20 per cent grant had been committed from the state. Thus, the total permissible VGF grant of 40 percent came to about Rs 170 crore.

Kushinagar has an existing airstrip spanning 97 acres for small aircraft. It is estimated that 3,00,000 international tourists visit Kushinagar every year for the Buddhist sites.

However, following lack of interest among private developers, the project still hangs in balance, although UP has officially not shelved it yet.

Jewar airport

In 2001, Jewar airport was proposed as an aviation hub to decongest New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. It was approved by AAI in 2003 during Mayawati’s regime.

She had vigorously pushed for it, although it came within the 150 km radius of another international airport in the national capital, while the existing rules prohibited another airport within such radius unless approved exclusively.

The project was estimated to cost Rs 3,500 crore spanning 3,700 acres and handle 4 million passengers annually. The techno-feasibility study had also been conducted and forwarded to the Centre for further action.

Mayawati had even planned to get the airport operational before 2010 Commonwealth Games, but it failed to take off owing to pending central clearances.

Agra airport

Soon after coming to power in March 2012, the Akhilesh government had virtually scrapped Jewar international airport project and proposed another airport in Agra.

The state had even identified land near Etmadpur, about 16 km from Agra City for the purpose. However, the defense ministry raised objections over this site.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2015, the Akhilesh government expressed willingness to revive the Jewar airport project, while at the same time pitching for the Agra aiport.

The UP government had even proposed an alternative site in Agra apart from proposing to redevelop Saifai airstrip (Etawah district) into an international airport.

Besides, UP had engaged AAI as consultant for conducting the pre-feasibility of the proposed airport sites at Agra and Saifai.

Former union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime had urged the Akhilesh government to hand over Meerut and Agra airport to AAI to unlock tourism potential in the region.

UP airports/airstrips

Currently, there are over two dozen airports and airstrips in the state owned either by AAI or UP, located in Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Bareilly, Meerut, Saifai (Etawah), Sultanpur, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Farrukhabad, Faizabad, Kushinagar, Sonbhadra, Moradabad, Azamgarh etc.

Besides, the UP civil aviation department owns 18 airstrips of which the Jhansi airstrip is controlled by the Indian Army.