Lucknow, June 1 Polling has begun for the seventh and final phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh where 13 remaining seats in the eastern part of the state are going to polls.
In Varanasi, a traditional stronghold of the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking his third consecutive term.
He secured a resounding victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with 63 per cent of the total votes. This time, he faces Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Rai and Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Athar Jamal Lari.
Gorakhpur, another prestigious seat of Purvanchal, sees a clash between two Bhojpuri actors.
BJP candidate Ravindra Kishan Shukla, popularly known as Ravi Kishan Shukla, is vying to retain the seat for a second term. He is being challenged by INDIA bloc candidate Kajal Nishad, also a Bhojpuri actor.
In Mirzapur, Union Minister Anupriya Patel from Apna Dal (Secular) emerged victorious in the 2014 and 2019 polls but faces competition from Samajwadi Party's (SP) Rajendra Bind and BSP's Manish Tripathi this time.
BSP candidate Balkrishna Chauhan is posing a challenge to NDA candidate Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Arvind Rajbhar, with SP's Rajeev Kumar Rai making the contest triangular.
In Ghazipur, the BJP has nominated Parasnath Rai, known to be close to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. Afzal Ansari, the brother of the late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, is contesting on a SP ticket.
In 2019, Afzal Ansari defeated senior BJP leader Manoj Sinha by more than 1.19 lakh votes. Umesh Kumar Singh represents the BSP in this constituency.
In Maharajganj, BJP's Pankaj Choudhary competes against Virendra Chaudhary of the Congress, while the Ballia constituency witnesses Neeraj Sekhar of the BJP facing off against Sanatan Pandey of the SP.
Meanwhile, given the prevailing heat wave conditions in Uttar Pradesh, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa has directed all the Divisional Commissioners and District Election Officers concerned to make necessary arrangements at all polling booths to protect polling personnel and voters from scorching heat in all 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of the eastern part of the state that go to polls in the seventh and final phase on Saturday.
Paramedics and ASHA workers are being provided with adequate ORS and medical kits at every polling centre and polling station to protect the voters from the heat, he said.
"Paramedic personnel should also be deployed with the sector magistrate. Emergency ambulance service available in the respective districts should be kept active so that it can be easily sent to polling centres and polling booths during an emergency," he added.
Arrangements have been made to provide water to voters standing in queue, CEO Rinwa said.
The Chief Electoral Officer advised voters to reach polling stations before sunrise on the polling day.
Shops and general stores operating around the polling stations where bottled drinking water is available should not be closed, he said, adding that uninterrupted power supply and adequate lighting should be arranged at polling stations.
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