Campaigning for final phase of election ends

The high pitch campaigning for the state’s crucial sixth and last phase of election came to an end on Saturday. In this phase, 18 lok Sabha constituencies spread over 14 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh will go to polls on May 12.

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and former CM of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Arvind Kejriwal, both from Varanasi, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav from Azamgarh, BJP’s Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur, UP Assembly Speaker and SP candidate Mata Prasad Pandey from Doomariyaganj, Minister of State for Home and Congress candidate RPN Singh from Kushinagar, Bhojpuri actor and Congress candidate Ravi Kishan from Jaunpur, and BJP senior leader and MlA Kalraj Mishra from Deoria are the prominent among the 328 candidates in the fray.

There are 63 criminals in the fray, including mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari (Ghosi), DP Yadav (Ghazipur) and Dhananjay Singh (Independent). Out of the total candidates in this phase, 63, or 19 per cent, have criminal background while 93, or 29 per cent, are crorepatis.Campaigning in Poorvanchal region had reached its crescendo with the focus shifting on Varanasi where Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav held impressive road shows on Saturday. The same day, Modi addressed five rallies, all in eastern UP.The ruling Samajwadi Party carried out an intensive campaigning in Varanasi and Azamgarh before the curtains came down. 

“The party is confident of winning majority of these seats. There is a wave in favour of Samajwadi Party,” party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said.More than 3.16 crore voters — 1.73 crore males and 1.42  crore females — will seal the fate of the 328 candidates in the fray in 31,483 polling stations on May 12.Security has been further tightened as polling for this phase will cover Naxal-hit areas. The administration will be deploying over 400 companies of central forces in the 18 constituencies going to polls.

“As this phase will cover the Naxalite belt of Sonebhadra,Chandauli and Mirzapur districts, additional companies of central forces would be deployed there,” DGP Al Banerjee said.

In two Assembly segments of Robertsganj (Sonebhadra), polling will end two hours before the actual time due to  Naxal threat.Varanasi has the highest number of 42 candidates, hence all the EVMs will have three balloting units.

Nine constituencies have more than 16 candidates and EVMs of two balloting units will be used for them. Bansgaon has the lowest number of 12 candidates in the fray.Gorakhpur has the maximum number of 19.03 lakh voters and Robertsganj the minimum number of  6.38 lakh voters.The Election Commission has deployed 37 general observers, 18 expenditure observers, two police observers, three awareness observers and 4,594 micro observers for this phase to ensure free and fair election.

The constituencies going to polls in the last phase include Domariyaganj, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), lalganj (SC), Azamgarh, Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr (SC), Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC).