The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have entered the final and seventh phase with Saturday being the last day for campaigning.
A total of 54 assembly constituencies of Purvanchal will go to polls on March 7 while counting for all the phases will be taken up on March 10.
The nine districts where polling will be held in the final phase are Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
The polling in three assembly constituencies -- Chakiya, Robertsganj and Duddhi in Sonbhadra -- will be held from 7 am to 4 pm only, unlike in the rest of the 51 constituencies where polling will continue till 6 pm. These three constituencies are in the Naxal-infested areas of the state.
Prominent leaders of opposition parties have made trips to Varanasi and other districts where polling will be held on March 7.
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee held a joint rally with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and his Rashtriya Lok Dal ally Jayant Chaudhary on Thursday.
After humbling the Bharatiya Janata Party in her home state, West Bengal, Banerjee is trying to mobilise anti-BJP forces ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati have already marked their attendance in Varanasi and its neighbouring areas.
The bigwigs of BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP president JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been extensively campaigning in Purvanchal to repeat the party’s 2017 success story.
Massive turnout of local people was witnessed in the roadshow led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi on Friday, while the Samajwadi Party also held a roadshow of Akhilesh Yadav in Varanasi late on Friday evening.
The SP, on the other hand, is also going all out to regain its bastions like Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Bhadohi. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is the incumbent MP from Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.
The task is cut out for both the BJP-led coalition and the SP to mobilise core voters in Varanasi, where the poll battle is being seen as a test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity in his constituency.
The might of Apna Dal (Sonelal) led by Union Minister of State Anupriya Patel and NISHAD party would be on test in Varanasi in particular to see that the BJP retains power in all the assembly constituencies here like the last time.
Similarly, the utility of the SP alliance partners Apna Dal (Kamerwadi) led by Anupriya's mother Krishna Patel, and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar will face a litmus test, especially in Varanasi.
The high-octane campaign witnessed all parties trying to put up their best shot as Purvanchal is considered to be the bellwether region of the UP assembly.
In 2017, out of the eight assembly seats in Varanasi, the BJP had won six while its partner Apna Dal (S) had bagged one and another one had gone to Rajbhar's SBSP, then an ally of the BJP. The saffron party faces the challenge of retaining all the six seats it won in 2017.
In this election, the BJP has fielded 48 candidates on 54 seats on the party symbol while its ally Apna Dal (S) and NISHAD Party have fielded 3-3 candidates each.
On the other hand, the SP has fielded 45 candidates on its symbol while its ally SBSP has fielded seven candidates and Apna Dal (K) has fielded two candidates.