Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh have entered their last and seventh phase and Saturday is the last day of campaigning. A total of 54 assembly seats in Purvanchal will go to polls on March 7 while counting of votes for all phases will be held on March 10.
The high-octane campaign saw all the parties trying to give their best shot as Purvanchal is considered to be the Belvedere constituency of the UP Assembly.
While the BJP is making every effort to retain its stronghold, its main contender, the Samajwadi Party, will be eyeing to regain the seats it won in the 2012 assembly elections. Along with this, the seventh and last phase of the UP assembly elections will be a litmus test for allies of both sides from Anupriya Patel to Om Prakash Rajbhar.
Many seats in the Purvanchal region were once considered strongholds of the Samajwadi Party. However, in 2017 in the Modi wave, the citadel was defeated by the BJP. In 2017, the SP managed to retain 11 seats in the Purvanchal region, while the BJP won 29 seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 3 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party also got six seats in this region.
In this election, the BJP has fielded 48 candidates out of 54 seats on the party’s election symbol, while its allies Apna Dal(S) and Nishad Party have fielded 3 candidates each. On the other hand, Samajwadi Party has fielded 45 candidates on its symbol, while its ally SBSP has fielded 7 candidates and Apna Dal (K) has fielded two candidates.
Top BJP leaders including UP CM Yogi Adityanath, BJP Chief JP Nadda, Union Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah are campaigning extensively in Purvanchal to repeat the 2017 success story with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On the other hand the Samajwadi Party is also trying its best to regain its strongholds like Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Bhadohi. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is the sitting MP from Azamgarh parliamentary constituency. However, this time he is contesting the assembly elections for the first time from the Karhal assembly seat of Mainpuri.
The Congress party is also in no mood to give up easily in Purvanchal seats, party’s UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is camping at Kabir Chaura Math in Varanasi in an attempt to connect Dalit voters in Purvanchal. Here in significant numbers.
The BJP ensured a huge crowd of supporters by conducting a roadshow of PM Modi in Varanasi on Friday, while the Samajwadi Party also held a roadshow of Akhilesh Yadav in Varanasi late on Friday evening.
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