The penultimate round of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh poll on March 3 will decide the fate of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and five Ministers of his Government.
The ten districts going to the polls in the sixth phase are Gorakhpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ballia, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar, and Siddharthnagar.
Besides Yogi, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister of State for Basic Education Satish Chandra Dwivedi, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, and Ministers of State Sriram Chauhan and Jai Prakash Nishad are in the fray in this round.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP won 46 seats and its allies Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) one each. However, this time the SBSP has deserted the BJP and joined hands with the Samajwadi Party. Of the 57 seats, 37 are under red alert (polling areas where more than three candidates have criminal cases registered against
them).
Despite only two phases of polling left, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding back-to-back rallies in Purvanchal. In eastern UP, his rallies are scheduled till March 4. The last phase of election will be held on March 7.
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Fate of Yogi, 5 BJP Mins to be decided on March 3 polls
Once again BJP's Satish Chandra Dwivedi will be contesting from Siddharthnagar's Itwa Assembly constituency. He is locked in a direct contest with the Samajwadi Party candidate and former UP Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey. In Baansi, Jai Pratap Singh will be contesting against the SP's Monu Dubey. Congress candidate from Baansi, Kiran Shukla and BSP candidate Radhe Shyam Shukla are also in the fray from here.
From Gorakhpur's Khajani Assembly seat (SC), Minister Sriram Chuahan is in the fray. Chauhan is a sitting MLA from Dhanghata in Sant Kabir Nagar district. From Deoria's Rudrapur seat, Jai Prakash Nishad is a BJP candidate, pitted against SP's Ram Bhual Nishad and BSP's Suresh Tiwari.
Disappointed over not getting a ticket from the saffron party, Tiwari, a BJP MLA from Barhaj, had joined the BSP. From Pathardeva, Surya Pratap Shahi has locked horns with SP's Brahma Shankar Tripathi.
The sixth phase has 27 per cent tainted candidates, 38 per cent crorepatis while 182 candidates have criminal cases registered against them.
BJP candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari from Gorakhpur's Chillupar tops the list of crorepatis. Rakesh Pandey, SP candidate from Ambedkarnagar's Jalalpur, has assets of over Rs 63 crore while BSP's Umashankar Singh from Balia's Rasra has declared assets of Rs 54 crore.
The candidates with least asset is Deepak Shrivastav of the AAP who has declared assets of Rs 500 only. He is contesting from Mahrajganj's Siswa seat. Shimon Prakash, an independent candidate from Ballia's Belthara Road (SC) seat, has declared assets of Rs 6,600.Narsingh Pal, AAP candidate from Deoria's Rudrapur seat, and has declared assets of over Rs 10,000.
Uttar Pradesh Election Watch Association for Democratic Reforms has analysed the affidavits of 670 candidates. Among the tainted candidates, 23 per cent have 151 cases of serious nature registered against them. BSP candidate from Sahjanwa, Sudhir Singh has the maximum number of cases, 26, registered against him, followed by SBSP candidate from Kushinagar's Khadda seat is Ashok Chauhan, who has 19 cases registered against him. Azad Samaj Party candidate from Gorakhpur, Chandrasekhar has 16 cases against him.
Eight candidates have crime against women cases registered against them, while two have rape cases, murder charges against eight, attempt to murder against 23. Party-wise, 40 of the 48 SP candidates, 23 of the 52 BJP candidates, 22 of the 56 Congress candidates, 22 of the 57 BSP candidates and seven of the 51 AAP candidates are tainted.