Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections: Voting underway in 54 seats across 9 districts
Categories: Election 2022
The seventh and final phase of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of 200 million people in northern India, is currently happening.This round will bring to a close one of the state's most bitterly contested elections.Purvanchal has 54 Assembly constituencies spread over nine districts where voting is taking place.Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, and Sonbhadra are among the districts where voting is taking place. In the last phase, significant contenders include BJP allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party, as well as Akhilesh Yadav's new friends Apna Dal (K), Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar and others.Previously a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party, the region witnessed the BJP gain ground in 2017 by capturing 29 seats alongside its partners Apna Dal (4) and the SBSP (3).The BSP received six seats, while the Samajwadi Party received eleven. UP ministers Neelkanth Tiwari, Anil Rajbhar, Ravindra Jaiswal, Girish Yadav, and Rama Shankar Singh Patel are among the prominent contestants in this phase.Dara Singh Chauhan, who left Yogi Adityanath's government and joined the Samajwadi Party, is also running for the seat of Ghosi in Mau.SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar (Zahoorabad), Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur) as JD(U) candidate and Abbas Ansari, son of mafia turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, from Mau Sadar seat are other prominent candidates in the final phase. The BJP is going all out to retain its bastion while the Samajwadi Party is eyeing to regain the constituencies it won in the 2012 Assembly elections.Also, the seventh and last phase of UP assembly elections will be a litmus test for allies on both the sides-- from Anupriya Patel in BJP-led alliance to Om Prakash Rajbhar in the SP-led alliance.In this election, BJP has fielded 48 candidates out of 54 seats on the party symbol while its ally Apna Dal (S) and Nishad Party have fielded 3-3 candidates each. On the other hand, Samajwadi Party has fielded 45 candidates on its symbol while its ally SBSP has fielded 7 candidates and Apna Dal (K) has fielded two candidates.Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP president J.P. Nadda, union ministers, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah, have been extensively campaigning in Purvanchal for the final phase to repeat its 2017 success story.