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The high-pitched campaigning for the 13 Lok Sabha  constituencies going to polls in the seventh phase of parliamentary election and the Duddhi assembly bypoll ended on Thursday.
Polling in these constituencies will be held on June 1.
To ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of polling on June 1,  polling parties departed for their respective polling stations on Friday.
Out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state under the seventh phase, 11 belong to the general category, and two are reserved for Scheduled Castes.
The 13 Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the last phase of elections include Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, and Robertsganj (SC), which are spread across 11 districts.
There are 144 candidates in the poll fray in this phase of polls — 134 male and 10 female candidates, Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Officer Navdeep Rinwa said.
Six candidates are competing for the Duddhi (ST) assembly by-election in Sonbhadra district, he added.
The prominent candidates in fray in the seventh phase polls include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Union minister and Apna Dal (Sonelel) leader Anupriya Patel from Mirzapur, former prime minister Chandrashekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar from Ballia, Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli, Union minister Pankaj Chaudhary from Maharajganj, and Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur.
Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, INDIA bloc leaders Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav actively campaigned in this phase to garner support for their candidates.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party tried to drive home its allegations that the INDIA bloc will bring in Muslim reservation and put 'Babri lock' in Ayodhya's Ram temple, the opposition urged people to vote to “save the Constitution”.
State's Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa has directed all district election officers overseeing Lok Sabha constituencies in the seventh phase to ensure essential facilities for voters and polling personnel at polling centres and booths.
This includes provision for cold, potable water at all polling centres and the availability of wheelchairs for individuals with disabilities and elderly citizens. Additionally, measures to provide shaded areas at all polling stations have been emphasised due to the intense heat.
Furthermore, before polling parties set out, medical kits were distributed to all polling personnel to enable them to tackle heatstroke cases and attend to any other health concerns during voting at the concerned booths.