In the last phase of UP Assembly elections as many as 2.06 crore eligible voters will seal the fate of 613 candidates contesting for 54 seats on Monday with luck and the image of some key leaders are at stake.
The electoral fates of some of the sitting ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government are on the line with some key players to be watched in the seventh phase.
Anil Rajbhar is up against Arvind Rajbhar of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party from the Shivpur Assembly constituency, while Ravindra Jaiswal is contesting from Varanasi North. Neelkanth Tiwari is up against Samajwadi Party's Kishan Dixit, a priest of Mrityunjay Mahadev, from the Varanasi South seat, while Rama Shankar Singh Patel is contesting from Madihan seat.
Another candidate to be watched out for is BJP's Saurabh Srivastava who is up against Samajwadi Party's Pooja Yadav from the Varanasi Cantonment seat, a fight likely to be a close one, according to the locals.
Varanasi is the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he concluded his two-day visit recently holding public meetings, and also held an interaction with the people belonging to various backgrounds in the city.
Interestingly, the BJP, in its election campaign, highlighted the law and order situation in the state and underlined the need for don-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari to remain imprisoned.
Mukhtar Ansari's son Abbas Ansari is contesting from Mau seat on a Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) ticket against BJP's Ashok Singh, and BSP's Bheem Rajbhar.
The SBSP walked out from the BJP's fold and is now being firm with the SP. BJP attacked the Samajwadi party for supporting and inducting criminals.
Notably, an FIR was recently lodged against the SP candidate for his 'hisab-kitab' remark against the government officials in a public rally.
Dara Singh Chauhan, a former minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, who quit the BJP weeks ahead of the commencement of the UP polls and joined the Samajwadi Party, has been fielded from the Ghosi seat of Mau district.
Extending the last stride in an attempt to gain an edge over one another in the last leg of the seven-phased elections that spread over 25 days (February 10 to March 7) taking into account crores of voters, all the political parties rested their campaigns on Saturday and it is now up to the voters to seal their fates in the ballot boxes and the EVMs on Monday from 7 am onwards.
The BJP has kept its faith in MLA and wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, Alka Rai to bag the party the Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur district.
Krishna Pratap Singh who is a former BJP MP is confronting Lucky Yadav of the Samajwadi Party from on the Malhni seat of Jaunpur.
The Samajwadi Party has fielded sitting MLA Shailendra Yadav Lalai in Shahganj in the Jaunpur district.
The polling will commence at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm in the districts of Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra.
The key constituencies in this phase include Azamgarh, Mau, Zahoorabad, Mohammadabad, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt and Gyanpur.
The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
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