Voting for the seventh and the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began on Monday morning. The fate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar and several state ministers will be decided in this round, in which 2.06 crore people are eligible to vote. The districts going to the polls in this phase are Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
The campaigning for the final phase ended on Saturday with the ruling BJP and its rival parties attacking each other on a range of issues, from the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, law and order, economic and security situation to the farmers' stir. Polling on these 54 seats will also mark the end of the almost month-long voting process in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh that began on February 10 after the announcement of the election in mid-January. The counting of votes will be undertaken on March 10.
Of the 54 seats in this phase, 11 are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and two for the Scheduled Tribes. There are 2.06 crore eligible voters. The final round of polling will also be a test of the alliances carved out by both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) with small caste-based parties. BJP's allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's new friends Apna Dal (K), Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar and others have been trying to rally their supporters.
Once considered a stronghold of the SP, the region saw the BJP making inroads in 2017 by winning 29 seats, along with its allies Apna Dal (four) and SBSP (three). The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got six seats and the SP 11. For the SP, its patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav made a rare appearance in Jaunpur to drum up support for Lucky Yadav, the son of his long-time associate late Parasnath Yadav who is in the fray from the Malhani seat. Mulayam Singh Yadav had earlier campaigned for his son Akhilesh Yadav in the Karhal Assembly segment in Mainpuri.
Besides state Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi South), other ministers in the fray in the last leg are Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).
-Inputs from agencies
