Lucknow, March 6
Voting in 54 seats, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi, will be held on Monday to decide the phase of 613 candidates for the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Polling will start at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm in Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra districts.
Campaigning for the final phase came to an end on Saturday when the BJP and its rival parties attacked each other on a range of issues ranging from handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, law and order, economic and security situation to farmers’ agitation. – Attacked the other.
Voting in these 54 seats will mark the end of nearly a month-long polling process in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, which began on February 10 after elections were announced in mid-January.
The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Of the 54 seats in this phase, 11 are reserved for scheduled castes and two for scheduled tribes. There are 2.06 crore eligible voters.
This final round will also be a test of alliances made by both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party with smaller caste-based parties.
BJP’s allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party and Akhilesh Yadav’s new friends Apna Dal (K), Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar and others have been trying to rally their supporters.
The region, once considered a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, saw the BJP take a lead in 2017 with its allies Apna Dal (4) and SBSP (3) winning 29 seats. The BSP got six and the Samajwadi Party got 11 seats.
For the Samajwadi Party, its mentor Mulayam Singh Yadav made a rare appearance in Jaunpur in support of his longtime colleague Late Parasnath Yadav’s son Lucky Yadav in the fray from Malhani seat.
Mulayam Singh had earlier campaigned for his son and party president Akhilesh Yadav in Mainpuri’s Karhal seat.
Besides UP Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi south) other ministers in the fray in the last leg are Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi north), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur)and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).
Dara Singh Chouhan, who had resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and joined the Samajwadi Party, is contesting from Ghosi in Mau.
SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar (Zahoorabad), Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur) as JD(U) candidate and Abbas Ansari, son of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, from Mau Sadar seat are contesting in this phase.
Campaigning reached its climax in the final phase when Prime Minister Modi led the BJP’s election attack in Varanasi and its surrounding districts.
Apart from addressing election rallies, he also conducted a roadshow for three assembly constituencies of Cantt, Varanasi North and Varanasi South.
This phase also saw Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee descending on the pilgrimage town to hold a joint rally along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav and her RLD colleague Jayant Choudhary.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was camping in Varanasi for nearly four days and addressed election meetings with her brother Rahul Gandhi, while BSP supremo Mayawati also campaigned in the district and neighboring areas.
Trying to quell the anti-incumbency wave, the ruling party raised issues like forced migration and law and order problem during the previous Samajwadi Party government, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav raised issues of inflation, unemployment, stray cattle and farmers’ agitation. Targeted the BJP government on the issue of Agricultural Law.
The harvesting of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri was also exposed by all the opposition parties as Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra is an accused in the case.