The campaigning for the sixth phase will end today. In this phase, polling will be held on March 3 in 57 seats in 10 districts. The districts where voting is to be held include Ballia, Gorakhpur, Balrampur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Basti and Ambedkar Nagar. Over 2.14 crore voters of these districts will decide the fate of 676 candidates.
The fight for the sixth stage is also quite interesting. This time the Chief Minister is Yogi Adityanath himself in the fray. This will be the first time after 18 years that a sitting Chief Minister is contesting elections in UP. Earlier in the year 2003-04, Mulayam Singh Yadav contested from Gunnaur while being the Chief Minister. From then till now, whoever took over the power of UP reached the chair of CM through the Legislative Council. Be it Mayawati in 2007 or Akhilesh Yadav in 2012 and Yogi Adityanath in 2017.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is in the fray from Gorakhpur Sadar seat. Apart from them, the fate of many veterans is also at stake in the sixth phase. Let us know the ten hot seats of this phase…
1. Gorakhpur Urban: Chief of Bhim Army against CM Yogi
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is contesting from the urban seat of Gorakhpur. Azad Samaj Party and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad have pitched against CM Yogi. Apart from this, Samajwadi Party has fielded Subhavati Shukla and Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Khwaja Shamsuddin. Dr. Chetna Pandey has been made a candidate from the Congress side. In 2017, Dr. Radha Mohan of BJP won from here.
2. Bansdih : Ramgovind Choudhary
Samajwadi Party leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ram Govind Choudhary is contesting from Ballia’s Bansdih seat. Against Ram Govind, BJP has nominated Ketki Singh, BSP Manti Rajbhar and Congress Puneet Pathak as its candidate. In 2017 also Ram Govind Chaudhary of SP won this seat.
3. Fazil Nagar : Swami Prasad Maurya
Swami Prasad Maurya, who left the post of minister in Yogi government and joined SP, is contesting this time from Fazil Nagar on SP ticket. The BJP has fielded Surendra Kushwaha, BSP Ilyas and Congress Sunil Manoj Singh against Swami Prasad. BJP candidate Ganga Singh Kushwaha won this seat last time.
4. Tamkuhi Raj : Ajay Kumar Lallu
Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu himself is contesting from Tamkuhi Raj seat of Kushinagar. Last time also Ajay Lallu had won this seat. This time BJP has fielded Asim Kumar against him, SP Uday Narayan and BSP has fielded Sanjay.
5. Etawah: Yogi’s Minister Vs. Former Speaker of the Assembly
This time two heavyweights are face to face from Etawa seat of Siddharthnagar. BJP has fielded Basic Education Minister Dr. Satish Chandra Dwivedi in the Yogi government, while Samajwadi Party’s former Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey has been made the candidate. BSP has given ticket to Harishankar Singh and Congress to Arshad Khurshid. Last time also Dr. Satish Chandra Dwivedi had won this seat.
6. Pathardeva : Surya Pratap Shahi
Former BJP state president and minister in Yogi government Surya Pratap Shahi is contesting from Deoria’s Pathardeva seat. Against Shahi, Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Brahmashankar Tripathi, BSP to Parvez Alam and Congress to Amber Jahan. Last time BJP’s Surya Pratap Shahi won from here.
7. Deoria: CM’s media advisor himself in the fray
Shalabh Mani Tripathi, advisor to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is in the fray from Deoria seat. Samajwadi Party has given ticket to Ajay Pratap Singh, BSP Ramsaran and Congress Purushottam Narayan Singh against Shalabh. BJP’s Janmejay Singh had won this seat last time.
8. Phephna: Sports Minister Vs Sangram Singh and Kamal Dev
Ballia’s Phephna seat is also in discussion. Sports Minister Upendra Tiwari is contesting from here in the Yogi government. Samajwadi Party has fielded Sangram Singh and Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Kamal Dev against Upendra. Jayendra has got the ticket from the Congress side. In 2017, Upendra Tiwari had won from this seat.
9. Katehri : Lalji Verma Vs Awadhesh Kumar
Katehri seat of Ambedkar Nagar is also in discussion. From here, BSP’s rebel MLA Lalji Verma is in the fray from Samajwadi Party ticket this time. Prateek Pandey of BSP and Awadhesh Kumar of Nishad Party are in the fray against Lalji. Congress has fielded Nishat Fatima as its candidate. Last time this seat went to the account of BSP.
10. Ballia Nagar: Dayashankar Singh Vs. Narad Rai
This time BJP’s state vice-president Dayashankar Singh has been fielded from Ballia Nagar. His wife Swati Singh is a minister in the Yogi government. Against Dayashankar, Samajwadi Party has given ticket to former minister Narad Rai and BSP has given ticket to Shivdas Prasad Verma. Om Prakash has been made a candidate from the Congress side. Anand Swaroop Shukla had won this seat last time. Anand is also the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in the Yogi government. This time Anand’s seat has been changed to Bairia.
The fate of these giants is also at stake
In the sixth phase, the fate of veterans like Akhilesh Pratap Singh of Congress, Ram Achal Rajbhar from BSP to SP, former minister Rammurthy Verma, Shri Ram Chauhan, Ram Swaroop Shukla, Raj Kishore Singh and Vinay Shankar Tiwari are also at stake.
In 2017, out of 57 seats in 10 districts where elections are to be held, BJP candidates won 46 seats. Apart from this, BJP’s alliance partner Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and Apna Dal (Sonelal) had won on two. Five Bahujan Samaj Party and two seats went to the account of Samajwadi Party. One seat was won by an Independent and one by a Congress candidate.