BJP's Yogi card faces SP caste arithmetic in UP

BJP's Ravi Kishan relies on development, SP's Nishad pins hopes on non-Yadav, Muslim votes in Gorakhpur, nerve-centre of eastern UP NAMITA BAJPAI @ Gorakhpur THE high-profile Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency is known for the Gorakshnath Peeth, Geeta Press and terracotta sculptures.

-  NAMITA BAJPAI

It has also seen literary giants like Munshi Premchand and Firaq Gorakhpuri, on one side, and the revolutionary poetry of Ram Prasad Bismil, on the other.

The constituency will vote in the seventh and final phase of the polls on June 1. Known as the nerve centre, the axis of eastern UP politics, its influence can be felt in over half-adozen seats of the division.

Once infamous for 'mafia' and 'mosquitoes' (the root cause of Japanese encephalitis), Gorakhpur had earned the sobriquet of 'Chicago of East' when the battle of supremacy between two gangsters Hari Shanker Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi, and their aides led to about 50 murders. The late 90s even witnessed the meteoric rise of gangsters like Sriprakash Shukla whose reign of terror spanned UP and Bihar.