UP Polls 2017: Sixth phase match between Mulayam and Adityanath, campaign ends

Lucknow: Though the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have come closer to the winding up phase, the excitement has not lessened an inch. With the end of the election campaign, for the sixth phase, on Thursday, the seven districts of the state will roll up their sleeves to decide the fate of 635 candidates.

Out of the 49 assembly seats in the seven districts the major focus would lay on Samajwadi Party Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Lok Sabha constituency Azamgarh and the LS constituency of Bharatiya Janata Party’s firebrand leader Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur.

Azamgarh has 10 assembly seats, of which SP had won nine in 2012, but this time Mulayam has not addressed a single meeting in his parliamentary constituency

While the SP patron has not actively participated in these polls, reason may be the internal feud or alliance with the Congress, which was done against his will, the poll campaign for the phase witnessed BJP’S MP from Gorakhpur lashing out some controversial religious comments in his campaigns. Besides Adityanath, the prestige of Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who represents Deoria in the Lok Sabha, will also be at stake.

Another interesting fight would be seen in the district of Mau where the BSP has fielded jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari from the Mau assembly seat. While Mukhtar is contesting from Mau, his son Abbas is in fray from adjoining Ghosi seat in Mau district.

This will also cover certain districts bordering Nepal and around 1.72 crore voters, including 94.60 lakh male and 77.84 lakh female, may exercise their franchise to decide the fate of the nominated candidates. There will be 17,926 polling booths in this phase

The districts that would go to polls in this phase are: Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh, and Ballia,

The Prominent candidates in this phase include BSP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya from Padrauna (Kushinagar), former BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi from Pathardeva (Deoria), Shyam Bahadur Yadav (SP), son of former Governor Ram Naresh Yadav from Fulpur Pawai (Azamgarh), SP turncoats Ambika Chowhdury and Narai Rai, who are contesting on BSP ticket from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar.

The highest number of candidates is in Gorakhpur constituency with 23 nominees being in the fray and the lowest of seven candidates are on Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau district.

It could be recalled that in the 2012 Assembly polls, of these 49 seats, 27 were won by the SP, 9 by BSP, 7 by BJP, 4 by Congress and 2 by others.