Strength of old and new allies of the BJP and the Samajwadi Party will be on test more than any other phase of the Uttar Pradesh polls as the month-long state elections enter their last two laps with the focus shifting on two regions most identified with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
With 57 seats spread across 10 districts, including Gorakhpur, and 54 seats in nine districts, including Varanasi, going to the polls on March 3 and March 7 respectively, another massive factor at play in this entire Poorvanchal region will be the fate of prominent BJP defectors to the SP like Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan besides the regional party led by Om Prakash Rajbhar who also dumped the ruling party for its rival.
It is also in this region that the mettle of BJP's ally Apna Dal and new partner Nishad Party will be put to test as most of the seats they are contesting fall in these two phases.
Union minister Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal and Sanjay Nishad-led Nishad Party are contesting on 17 and 16 seats respectively, underlining the importance the BJP has attached to their perceived roots in two major backward castes Kurmi and Nishad respectively. In the 2017 polls, the BJP had conceded only 11 seats to Apna Dal.
Going all out to teach its friends-turned-foes a political lesson and to prove that its hold among the castes they claim to represent remain strong, the BJP has fielded Kalicharan Rajbhar, who left the SP to join, against its former ally O P Rajbhar in Zahoorabad and wooed over R P N Singh to its fold from the Congress to corner Maurya, prompting him to leave his Padaurna seat to contest from neighbouring Fazilnagar.
That these two phases also include the regions linked to Modi, Lok Sabha MP from Varanasi, and Adityanath, who is contesting the assembly poll from Gorakhpur, after have only added to their significance.
The prime minister is expected to spend last three days of the campaign in Varanasi, something he had also done in 2017, as the BJP gives a final push to its campaign to retain power in the state.
With the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party having emerged as the main challenger to the BJP, his party is also hopeful of doing well in the region it believes that a consolidation of its core Muslim and Yadav votes combined with increment votes, especially from other backward castes, will help it edge part the ruling party.
It is with this goal in mind that Yadav effected defections of several OBC leaders, including Maurya and Chauhan who were ministers in the state government, to its ranks.
While most experts believe that Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party has been left behind by the SP in the opposition's challenge to the BJP, her party continue to enjoy backing of a large section of Jatav voters.
