Election Commission has geared up for conducting the seventh and final phase of polling for the UP assembly elections on Wednesday in a free and fair manner. The polling will be held in 40 assembly seats spread in seven districts. The election campaign ended on Monday evening. The EC has made elaborate security arrangements, including deployment of over 700 companies of Central forces along with over one lakh policemen. The Chief Electoral Officer of UP, T Venkatesh said here on Tuesday that all preparation for smooth conduct of the voting have been completed and the polling parties are being dispatched since Tuesday morning.
He said that as three assembly constituencies, two in Sonebhadra and one in Chandauli district, are Naxalite infested - hence extra security measures have been taken. The polling in the last phase will be held in the areas bordering with the Naxalite affected state of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. The seven districts going to the polls in this phase are Ghazipur, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadoi and Sonebhadra. Polling will be held between 7 am and 5 pmfor all seats except in three Naxalite- affected constituencies — Dudhi and Robertsganj in Sonebhadra district and Chakia in Chandauli district. The polling in three seats will end one hour earlier at 4 pm for security reasons. With the conclusion of canvassing for the seventh phase at 5 pm on Monday, the high-voltage electioneering for the past more than one month in the entire state came to an end after the poll dates were announced by the Election Commission on January 4. Though 40 seats would go to polls in the last phase, election would be held on March 9 in Allapur in Ambedkar Nagar district .Counting of votes will be held on March 11 for all 403 seats.
In the seventh phase, 1.41 crore electorate, including 64.76 lakh women, can exercise their franchise in 14,458 polling booths. There are 535 candidates in the fray for the last phase, including 47 women of which 22 per cent have criminal backgrounds while 25 per cent are crorepatis. Varanasi Cantonment has 24 candidates and Kerakat seat in Jaunpur district just six. Of the 40 seats at stake, Varanasi was the centre of attraction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hitting the campaign trail in his parliamentary constituency and high voltage canvassing by other political heavyweights, including Samajwadi Party president and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BSP president Mayawati, among others.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, out of these 40 seats, 23 went to SP, five to BSP, four to BJP, three to Congress and five to others. There are five ministers in the fray along with president of regional party Bharatiya Samaj Party which is an alliance partner of the BJP. Among the important contenders in the final phase are ministers Parasnath Yadav, Shailendra Yadav, Om Prakash Singh, Surendra Patel and Kailash Chaurasia. Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar, an ally of the BJP and Apna Dal (Krishan Patel faction) President Krishna Patel , Congress leaders Ajai Rai, laliteshpati Tripathi and Nadim Javed. Some musclemen and their close kin are also in the fray, including Dhananjay Singh, Mukhtar Ansari’s brother Sibatullah Ansari, sharpshooter Munna Bajrangi’s wife Seema Singh, mafia don Brajesh Singh’s brother Sushil Singh and Vijay Mishra.