E-Paper
Final push for electoral supremacy in Uttar Pradesh today
D-DAY NEXT Countdown for March 10 begins this evening when, along with Uttar Pradesh, results of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur will also be declared
The seventh and final phase of the high-octane Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held on Monday, and by 6 pm it will be curtains on the seven-phased, month-long poll process in the state.
Monday evening will also set off the countdown for March 10 when, along with Uttar Pradesh, the results of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur will also be declared.
Elections to the latter four states had concluded on different dates earlier.
In the last phase polls on Monday, voters in Varanasi (the Prime Minister’s parliamentary constituency) and Azamgarh (Samajwadi Party chief’s Lok Sabha constituency), among other districts, will elect their MLAs.
In Monday’s polls, a total of 2,05,51,521 voters will decide the fate of 613 candidates in 54 constituencies.
Spread over nine entirely southern-east UP districts, polling in these constituencies will be held from 7 am till 6 pm. The districts going to polls are: Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
State chief electoral officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said all preparations for voting have been completed.
Reservation and caste census -- the issues that Akhilesh and his alliance partners are raising -- would play out prominently in this region as it has a significant OBC population, and so would nationalism, double-engine government, religion and ‘parivarvaad’ that were raked by the BJP.
One of the most-watched candidates in this phase is former Yogi Adityanath minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is contesting from his Zahoorabad seat. Rajbhar had won the seat in 2017 as candidate of SBSP, which was a BJP ally. But after falling out with the BJP over OBC issues, Yogi expelled him from the cabinet in 2019. In the run-up to the 2022 polls, Rajbhar allied with SP.
The 54 seats are crucial for BJP, which won 29 of them in 2017, and SP, which bagged 34 in 2012.
The 2017 tally of the 54 seats was: BJP 29, SP 11, BSP 06, Apna Dal (S) 04, SBSP 03, and Nishad Party 01.
The 2012 tally was: SP 34, BJP 04, BSP 07, Congress 04, Qaumi Ekta Dal 02, Apna Dal (S) 01 and independents 02.
Both BJP and SP have most of their alliances with smaller parties active in this region that is going to polls, as was the case during polling in the sixth phase, as well.
BJP’s alliance partners are Apna Das (S) and Nishad Party while SP alliance partners here are Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Apna Dal (K).
BJP gave four of the 54 tickets to Nishad Party and three to Apna Dal (S); SP gave six tickets for the 7th phase to SBSP.
Campaigning for the last phase reached its crescendo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the BJP’s blitzkrieg in Varanasi and its adjoining districts.
This phase campaigning also saw Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee descending on Varanasi to hold a joint rally with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his RLD ally Jayant Chaudhary.
SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav also made a poll outing to a Jaunpur constituency, Malhani.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had been camping in Varanasi for about four days and she, along with her brother Rahul Gandhi, addressed election meetings there.
BSP chief Mayawati also campaigned in the district and neighbouring areas.
UP ministers in the fray in this phase are Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi south), Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi north), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur)and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).
Dara Singh Chauhan, who had resigned from the Yogi cabinet and joined SP, is also contesting from Ghosi in Mau.
Dhananjay Singh is contesting from Malhani-Jaunpur as JD(U) candidate and Abbas Ansari, son of Mafioso-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, from Mau Sadar seat.
In the previous six phases, a total of 349 of the total 403 UP assembly constituencies have voted.
