Uttar Pradesh will vote on Monday for its seventh and final phase in which 54 seats will go to polls that will decide the fate of 613 candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi is among the heavyweight constituencies that will go to polls. Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra are the other districts where polls will take place from 7 am till 6 pm tomorrow.

Curtains came down on the two-month-long campaigning on Saturday, which saw political parties trading barbs on issues, including Covid-19, law and order, farmers’ protest and economy.

Monday will also mark the end of the almost month-long election process in UP. The first phase of polling was held on February 10. The votes will be counted on March 10.

The final phase will see around 2.06 crore voters exercising their franchise in the 54 seats, which include 11 Scheduled Castes and two Scheduled Tribes constituencies.

Monday’s polling will also be an acid test of the alliances forged by both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) with small caste-based parties. In this election, BJP has allied with Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party, while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has joined hands with Apna Dal (K) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar.

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In the 2017 assembly elections, 29 of these 54 seats were won by the BJP and seven by its allies. The SP was victorious on 11 seats and six were won by the BSP. In the 2012 elections, the SP had won 34, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) seven and BJP just four of them. Three seats were won by the Congress and five by other smaller parties.

Key candidates

The key candidates in the fray are state Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi South), Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).

SBSP chief Rajbhar (Zahoorabad), Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur) as the JD(U) candidate and Abbas Ansari, the son of mafia-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, from Mau Sadar seat are contesting in this phase. Dara Singh Chauhan, who had quit the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and switched sides to the SP, is contesting from Mau’s Ghosi seat.

The campaigning in the last phase reached its crescendo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the BJP’s poll blitzkrieg in Varanasi and its adjoining districts. Besides addressing election rallies, he also held a roadshow for the three Assembly constituencies of Cantonment, Varanasi North and Varanasi South.

This phase also saw West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee descending on the pilgrim city to hold a joint rally with Akhilesh Yadav and his RLD ally Jayant Chaudhary. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had been camping in Varanasi for about four days and she, along with her brother Rahul Gandhi, addressed election meetings, whereas BSP supremo Mayawati also campaigned in the district and neighbouring areas.

Seeking to override anti-incumbency, the ruling party raised issues like forced migration and law-and-order problems during the previous SP government while Akhilesh Yadav targeted the BJP government on the issues of inflation, unemployment, stray cattle and the farmers’ agitation against three agriculture laws of the Centre.

(With PTI inputs)

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