Campaigning for 54 assembly seats in nine districts in the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections came to an end on Saturday. Voting will be held from 07:00 am on March 07 in 54 assembly constituencies of Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra districts. According to the information received from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, the campaigning for the three assembly constituencies Chakia (Su), Robertsganj and Duddhi (Su) for the seventh phase of elections in the state came to an end at 4 pm on Saturday, while the remaining 51 seats in the evening. The campaign ended at six o’clock. The Election Commission has declared these three assembly constituencies sensitive from the point of view of security.
According to the pre-determined election schedule, polling will be held till 4 pm in three seats Chakia (SU), Robertsganj and Duddhi (SC). In the remaining 51 seats, voters will be able to exercise their franchise till 6 pm. In the last phase of polling, 2.05 crore voters will decide the fate of a total of 613 candidates in the EVMs. There are 1.09 crore male and 96.4 lakh female voters in this phase while 1014 voters are in third gender category.
According to the report of ADR, a research organization that monitors the election reform process, 170 (28 percent) of the candidates who are in the fray for this phase have criminal cases pending against them. Of these, 131 candidates have serious criminal cases pending in court. In the 2017 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies won 36 out of 54 seats in the seventh phase, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) won 11 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) six. Victory was tied. In the year 2017, BJP’s ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SubhaSP) is part of the SP alliance in this election. In Ghazipur and Mau, the reputation of SubhaSP, which has a huge support base, will be tested in this phase, while BJP’s ally Apna Dal S in Marjipur and SP in Jaunpur and Azamgarh will have to live up to its expectations.
The ministers of the Yogi government whose reputation is at stake in the last phase of elections include Transport Minister Anil Rajbhar from Shivpur seat, Stamp and Registration Minister (Independent Charge) Ravindra Jaiswal from Varanasi North seat, Tourism Minister Neelkant Tiwari from Varanasi South seat and Energy. Minister of State Ramashankar Singh Patel is trying his luck from the Madihan seat. Apart from these, other prominent candidates in the fray for this phase include former minister Dara Singh Chauhan. Recently, Dara Singh, who left the BJP and joined the SP, is contesting from the Ghosi seat of Mau district. Apart from him, Alka Rai, the sitting MLA wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, is in the fray from Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur district. Arvind Rajbhar of SubhaSP is challenging Transport Minister Anil Rajbhar in Shivpur seat. Former BJP MP Krishna Pratap Singh is standing on the Malhni seat of Jaunpur. In this seat, he is pitted against Lucky Yadav of SP. Lucky is the son of former SP MP Paras Nath Yadav.
In Mau seat, Abbas Ansari, son of Bahubali MLA Mukhtar Ansari, is contesting on a SP ticket, while in Shahganj seat of Jaunpur district, sitting MLA Shailendra Yadav Lalai has been fielded by the SP as a candidate. On behalf of the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state, it was told that all the necessary preparations for the voting have been completed. For the last phase of polling, 23,535 polling stations have been set up at 12,196 polling stations. Polling parties of election personnel will reach their designated polling stations by Sunday evening to complete the process of voting.
In the seventh phase, Atraulia, Gopalpur, Sagadi, Mubarakpur, Azamgarh, Nizamabad, Phulpur-Powai, Didarganj, Lalganj (SU), Mehnagar (SU), Madhuban, Ghosi, Muhammadabad-Gohna (SU), Mau, Badlapur, Shahganj, Jaunpur, Malhani, Mungra Badshahpur, Machhlishahr (Su), Madiyahu, Zafarabad, Kerakat (Su), Jakhanian (Su), Saidpur (Su), Ghazipur, Jangipur, Jahurabad, Mohammadabad, Zamania, Mughalsarai, Sakaldiha, Sayedraja, Chakia (Su), Padrira, Ajgara (Su), Shivpur, Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt, Sewapuri, Bhadohi, Gyanpur, Aurai (Su), Chhanabe (Su), Marjiapur, Majhwan, Chunar, Madihan, Ghorawal, Robertsganj, Obra ( Su) and Duddhi (Su) assembly seats.