The campaigning for the fifth phase of polling, in 11 districts of eastern UP where 51 assembly seats will go to polls on February 27, ended on Saturday evening. Polling in one seat has been deferred to march 9 due to the death of the Samajwadi party candidate in Ambedkarnagar district.
The fifth phase of elections will be a litmus test for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in the elections as they have around 80 per cent of the seats. On the last day of campaigning on Saturday Akhilesh Yadav addressed 7 meetings while Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attended three election meetings.
The 11 districts going to polls in the fourth phase are Sultanpur, Amethi, Ambedkarnagar, Bhariach, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddarthnagar, Basti, Santkabir Nagar and Faizabad.
Nine ministers along with UP assembly speaker are in the fray in this phase of elections. In Alapur assembly seat of Ambedkar nagar district the SP candidate Chandrasekhar Kashyap died due to heart attack after the end of the nomination process. SP has fielded his wife Sangita in his place and the polling will be held on March 9 after the end of all the seven phases polling in the state.
Campaigning in this phase was electrifying with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing three meetings — at Basti, Bahriach and in Gonda. Several leaders of other political parties also campaigned for their respective candidates. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, BSP president Mayawati, SP president Akhilesh Yadav were among the prominent leaders along with several union ministers who campaigned daily and addressed several meetings to boost the fortune of their candidates.
Despite the alliance the SP and the Congress candidates are contesting against each other in two seats of Amethi district, one Amethi seat and another in Gauriganj. Similarly, the Congress has not fielded any candidate in seven districts of the total 11 including Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti, Sidharthnagar, Sant Kabirnagar, Basti and Bahriach.
However, all eyes would be in the triangular contest being witnessed in Amethi assembly seat where two wives of Raja Sanjay Singh of the Congress are pitted against each other with controversial UP minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati is also in the contest.
Prominent candidates in the fray are UP assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey from Itwa seat in Siddharthnagar, BSP state president Ramachal Rajbhar from Akbarpur seat and senior BSP leader lalji Verma from Kateheri, both in Ambedkar Nagar district, Peace Party president Dr Ayub from Khalilabad in Sant kabirnagar district, minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati from Amethi, and minister Sankh lal Manjhi from Jalalpur in Ambedkarnagar district.
Two Congress MlAs — Mukesh Srivastava is contesting in this phase on SP ticket from Pyagpur seat while Madhuri Verma on BJP ticket from Nanpara seat. In the fifth phase, there would be 1.84 crore voters who will exercise their franchise at 19,167 polling booths.
Assembly segments which the parties which won in this phase in 2012 are SP- 37, BSP- 03, BJP- 05, Congress -05 and Peace Party -02.
The fifth phase of polling would be held in following assembly seats—
Tiloi, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj, Amethi, Isauli, Sultanpur, Sultanpur Sadar, lambhua, Kadipur, Rudauli, Milkipur, Bikapur, Ayodhya, Gosainganj, Katheri, Tanda, Jalalpur,Akbarpur, Balha, Nanpara, Matera, Mahsi, Bahriach, Payagpur, Kaiserganj, Bhinga, Shravasti, Tulsipur, Gasari, Utraula, Balrampur, Mehnaun, Gonda, Katra bazaar, Karnalganj, Tarabganj, Mankapur, Gaura, Shoratgarh, Kapilvastu, Bansi, Itwa, Domariyaganj, Hariyya, Kaptanganj, Rudhauli, Basti Sadar, , Mahadeva, Mehdaval, Khalilabad and Ghanghata.
