Kanpur Nagar Ahead of UP 2027: Recap of 2022 Assembly Battles
As Uttar Pradesh gears up for the 2027 assembly polls, attention is turning to Kanpur Nagar, a district with 10 assembly constituencies and a long political legacy. Revisiting the 2022 results helps explain the present balance of power in the region.
Kanpur sits on the southern bank of the Ganga, roughly 80 kilometres west of Lucknow. It is widely regarded as one of the state's leading industrial cities.
The district's constituencies are Bilhaur, Bithoor, Kalyanpur, Govind Nagar, Sisamau, Arya Nagar, Kidwai Nagar, Kanpur Cantonment, Maharajpur and Ghatampur.
Bilhaur is a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes and is numbered 209 among the state's 403 assembly seats. It falls under the Mishrikh Lok Sabha constituency and had about 3,92,993 registered voters in 2022. The current MLA, Mohit Sonkar Bachcha of the BJP, beat Samajwadi Party candidate Rachna Singh.
In Bithoor, the sitting MLA is BJP's Abhijeet Singh Sanga. He won about 44.46 per cent of the votes in 2022, defeating Samajwadi Party's Munindra Shukla. Turnout was 65.63 per cent.
Kalyanpur, seat number 211 in the state, is a general unreserved constituency. Around 3,55,100 voters were registered in the previous election. BJP's Nilima Katiyar is the present representative.
Govind Nagar's MLA is BJP's Surendra Maithani, who took about 61.13 per cent of the vote in 2022 and won comfortably over Samajwadi Party's Samrat Vikas Yadav. Turnout stood at 54.87 per cent.
Samajwadi Party's Irfan Solanki won Sisamau in 2022, beating BJP's Salil Vishnoi.
Arya Nagar is seat number 214 and a general constituency within the Kanpur Lok Sabha seat. Samajwadi Party's Amitabh Bajpai is the incumbent. In 2022 he received about 50.56 per cent of the votes, defeating BJP's Suresh Awasthi. Turnout was 50.97 per cent.
Kidwai Nagar, the 215th seat, is a general constituency that had roughly 3,48,846 registered voters in the last election. BJP's Mahesh Trivedi holds the seat at present.
Kanpur Cantonment is represented by Samajwadi Party's Mohammad Hasan Rumi, who won with about 49.99 per cent of the votes in 2022, defeating BJP's Raghunandan Singh Bhadauriya. Turnout was 52.40 per cent.
Maharajpur is the 217th seat, a general constituency with around 4,48,458 registered voters in the previous poll. BJP's Satish Mahana is the sitting MLA.
Ghatampur is a reserved seat held by Saroj Kuril of the Apna Dal (Sonelal). She beat Samajwadi Party's Bhagwati Sagar by 14,474 votes in 2022.
Kanpur's connectivity is strong. Lucknow's Amausi airport, about 65 kilometres away, is the nearest international airport, and the city has its own Chakeri Airport. Kanpur Central railway station links the city with Delhi, Varanasi, Lucknow, Howrah, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kannauj, Mathura, Agra, Banda, Mumbai, Chennai, Jabalpur, Bhopal and Manikpur. Trains such as Shatabdi, Rajdhani, Nilanchal, Magadh, Vikramshila, Vaishali, Gomti, Sangam and Pushpak pass through the city. National Highway 2 connects Kanpur with Delhi, Prayagraj, Agra and Kolkata, and National Highway 25 links it with Lucknow, Jhansi and Shivpuri.
Kanpur is also known as the industrial capital of the state. The city is believed to have been founded by Raja Hindu Singh of the Sachendi kingdom and was originally called Kanhpur. Historical accounts state that it developed in the late Awadh Nawabi period through the union of the villages of Purana Kanpur, Patkapur, Kursawan, Juhi and Simamau.