Campaigning for the state’s crucial fifth phase election to 15 constituencies came to and end on Monday evening with Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi making last minute efforts to corner Rahul Gandhi in his own bastion Amethi and the Congress vice-president trying hard to maintain his party’s supremacy in the Awadh region by addressing a successful rally in Gonda in favour of Union minister Beni Prasad Verma.
While seeking support for Smriti Irani, the small screen’s ‘Tulsi’, Modi attack the local Congress MP on development front, saying that he saw Amethi as the most backward district of UP hence he had fielded his closest lieutenant Smriti Irani to make a “noticeable” change in the area.
Conducting the state’s fifth phase poll peacefully will be a big challenge for the Election Commission as 22 per cent of the total 243 candidates in the fray have criminal backgrounds.
The fate of many prominent leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, TV star and Rajya Sabha member Smriti Irani of the BJP, poet Kumar Viswas (all in Amethi), BJP general secretary Varun Gandhi in Sultanpur, Union Steel Minister and Congress candidate Beni Prasad Verma in Gonda, UP Congress president Nirmal Khatri in Faizabad, and cricketer-turned politician and Congress candidate Mohammad Kaif in Phulpur will be sealed on coming Wednesday.
Prominent mafia-turned-politician who are in the fray in this phase include Samajwadi Party’s Atiq Ahmed and Peace Party’s Rizwan Zaheer (both in Shravasti), Mitrasen Yadav (Faizabad), Bahujan Samaj Party’s Pawan Pandey (Sultanpur), Kapilmuni Kanwariya (Phulpur) and Jitendra Kumar Singh Babloo (Faizabad).
Campaigning in this phase reached its crescendo with all parties leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters in the scorching heat before electioneering came to an end at 6 pm on Monday.
The war of words between the Gandhi family and Narendra Modi and his aides were the highlight of electioneering in this phase with each trying to corner the opponent through personal attacks.
Union minister Beni Prasad Verma, the Congress candidate from Gonda, continued his barbs against Modi without any fear of possible action by the Election Commission despite being issued a last warning by the poll panel for his derogatory remarks.
This phase of election also holds significance as for the first time, two prominent political parties, BJP and BSP, have demanded deployment of central forces in all the polling booths as they apprehend large-scale rigging by the ruling Samajwadi Party.
BJP’ prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi even accused the Election Commission of failing to check rigging and dared it to initiate action against him for speaking against the poll panel.
On Monday, Modi led BJP’s campaign from the front by addressing five election meetings in Ambedkarnagar, Faizabad, Jaunpur, Kaushambi and the concluding one in Amethi.
Several Bollywood stars also campaigned in this phase in support of several candidates. The main contest in this phase is expected in Amethi where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is involved in a triangular contest with BJP’s Smriti Irani and Aam Admi Party leader Kumar Vishwas.
BJP leader Varun Gandhi, who shifted to Sultanpur this time from Pilibhit, is also locked in a tough battle of ballots against Congress candidate Amita Singh and the candidates of SP and BSP.
Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma is also locked in a tough four-cornered contest in Gonda while sitting Congress MP Rajkumari Ratna Singh is contesting from Pratapgarh seat.
The Allahabad lok Sabha constituency is also expecting a keen tussle between sitting MP Reoti Raman Singh of SP and the candidates of BJP, Congress and BSP.
In the adjoining Phulpur constituency, cricketer-turned-politician and Congress candidate Mohammad Kaif is pitted against the BJP, SP and BSP candidates.
As many as 2.52 crore voters — 1.37 crore males, 1.14 crore females and 1446 others — will seat the fates of all the candidates in 25,857 polling booths on May 7.
In the 2009 lok Sabha election, the Congress had won seven of these 15 lok Sabha seats. It was followed by BSP (five seats) and SP (three seats). The BJP had drawn a blank in these 15 constituencies.
The Congress has again fielded all its sitting parliamentarians from these constituencies except Sanjay Singh as his wife Amita Singh has been given the ticket from Sultanpur this time.
The BSP has given its ticket to three and the SP to two sitting members. One sitting member of the SP, Braj Bhushan Saran Singh, has now switched over to the BJP and is contesting from Kaiserganj seat.
There are 34 candidates, the highest, in the fray in the prestigious Amethi constituency where 3-EVM units would be used in each booth. Sant Kabir Nagar has 25 candidates in the fray while Allahabad has 23 candidates. The minimum number of 10 candidates are in the fray in Bahraich.
The constituencies going to poll in the state’s fifth phase include Amethi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi (SC), Phulpur, Allahabad, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj, Shravasti, Gonda, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar and Bhadohi.