Laksar: 4-cornered contest on cards

Haridwar: In 2017, BJP's Sanjay Gupta won the Laksar assembly seat with a close margin.
This time, Gupta is up against BSP's Shahjad (who goes by his first name), who is expected to secure a majority of the Muslim votes, Congress's Antriksh Saini, the richest candidate in the fray for Uttarakhand polls, and Azad Samaj Party's Taslim Ahmed, who has been making inroads in the constituency for months now.This, say poll-watchers, has made the contest a very close one. Another candidate who is likely to cut into BJP's votes is party rebel Ajai Verma, who is contesting from the seat on a Rashtravadi Janlok Party (RJP) ticket.
Meanwhile, Shahjad, a two-time BSP MLA, has won elections from the Bahadarabad seat in 2002 and 2007. In 2012, he, however, lost polls from the Piran Kaliyar seat. In 2017, he again lost from the seat while contesting independently.
Taslim has a similar track record. He won twice (in 2002 and 2007) from the Laldhang seat and then lost twice (in 2012 and 2017) from Laksar. Poll analysts feel that the town's 23,000 Muslim votes will be divided among Taslim and Shahjad. This, they say, may work to the advantage of Gupta.
Antriksh Saini, who was earlier the state vice-president of BSP, contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on Congress ticket but lost. He, however, has a stronghold over the 18,000 Saini votes.
RJP's Verma, too, as per poll observers, has the potential to surprise many.