Thirteen Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi, will go to polls in the last and seventh phase of the general elections on Saturday.
Polling in the state, which sends 80 members to the Lower House of Parliament, was held in all seven phases of the election.
UP’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said here on Friday that the bypoll for the Duddhi (ST) assembly constituency in Sonbhadra district will also be held on Saturday. Six candidates are contesting from the seat that fell vacant after Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ram Dular’s disqualification following his conviction in a rape case.
The Lok Sabha seats where polling will take place in the seventh phase on Saturday are Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC), spread across 11 districts.
Of the 144 candidates in this phase of the polls, 134 are men and 10 women candidates. They will be elected by 2,50,56,877 eligible voters, including 1,33,10,897 men, 1,17,44,922 women and 1,058 transgender people.
Voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. However, the polling time in two assembly segments of Robertsganj (ST) Lok Sabha constituency will be from 7 am to 4 pm. The two segments are Robertsganj and Duddhi.
Campaigning for the 13 seats in UP ended on Thursday evening. The polling parties left for their respective centres on Friday.
UP is seeing a direct contest between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and the INDIA bloc members Samajwadi Party and Congress. Besides Prime Minister Modi, who is seeking a third term from Varanasi, there are 144 candidates in the fray in 13 constituencies.
Among the prominent Lok Sabha seats are Varanasi, Gorakhpur, which has been represented by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath five times, Chandauli, Maharajganj and Mirzapur from where Union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey, Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel are contesting, respectively, Ghazipur, from where late Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal Ansari is in the fray and Ballia from where former prime minister Chandrashekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar is contesting.
Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the star campaigners for the NDA. The INDIA bloc saw Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav canvassing for candidates of the alliance, with roadshows in Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
While Gandhi contested the polls from Rae Bareli in the fifth phase on May 20, Akhilesh Yadav was fielded by the SP in Kannauj that went to polls in the fourth phase on May 13 and Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri where voting was held in the third phase on May 7.
During campaigning, the BJP alleged that the INDIA bloc would bring in Muslim reservation and put the “Babri lock” on Ayodhya’s Ram temple, if voted to power. The opposition alliance urged people not to vote for the BJP to “save” the Constitution and democracy.
BJP’s key allies NISHAD Party and Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party have candidates in this phase. NDA ally Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (Sonelal) is seeking re-election. Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati has also fielded candidates, including in Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
Rinwa said carrying mobile phones or wireless sets inside a polling booth was prohibited on the day of polling. In view of the heat, an adequate quantity of ORS and medical kits will be kept at polling stations along with arrangements for cold water and proper shade, he added.
