Hundreds of thousands of voters came out to cast ballots in the penultimate phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, registering 40 per cent voting in six hours, with the highest polling seen in Kushinagar, Mau and Maharajganj constituencies.

Till 1 pm, 36 per cent was reported from Gorakhpur and Deoria, 39 from Ballia, and 42 per cent each from Maharajganj, Kushinagar and Mau, an Election Commission official said.

Azamgarh, the Lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, after recording the lowest turnout in the first four hours, saw voting picking up considerably with 41 per cent of votes cast by 1 pm.

The SP patriarch did not campaign in his constituency following a falling out with his son chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who replaced him as the party president.

Mau where mafia don turned politician Mukhtaar Ansari was fielded by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) reported steady polling through the day. A minor scuffle was reported from the Sadar area in Mau where police had to resort to a baton charge.

Over 17.2 million voters from 49 constituencies are to decide the fate of 635 candidates, of whom 175 are contesting as independents. Polling was slow in the first two hours, but later picked up steadily.

There are several interesting contests in this phase as Swamy Prasad Maurya of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Surya Pratap Shahi of the BJP, Shyam Bahadur Yadav of the SP among others battle it out.

While Maurya is contesting from Padrauna, former state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Surya Pratap Shahi is fighting from Pathardeva.

Among the early voters was BJP’s MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath.

Gorakhpur city accounted for the biggest number of candidates with 127 aspirants in the fray for its nine seats, while the lowest number of candidates — seven — contested the Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at the famous Kashi Vishwanath and Kal Bhairav temples, and paid tributes to Hindutva ideologue Madan Mohan Malviya as part of his roadshow, in a bid to rally voters around the BJP in the Hindu holy town of Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Starting from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Modi led the roadshow through the winding roads of his Lok Sabha constituency followed by a huge crowd of supporters, as the sixth phase of polling in 49 constituencies, including Gorakhpur and Azamgarh in the state was under way.

With Hindus comprising 80 per cent of Varanasi’s population, the BJP camp is once again relying heavily on Modi to deliver the goods in Uttar Pradesh where it has been out of power for 15 years.

BJP leaders also feel that the hours-long event, broadcast live on most of the regional TV news channels, will help their cause when the 40 remaining seats go to the polls in the final phase on March 8.

People turned out in large numbers as the PM’s cavalcade moved at a snail’s pace. Modi waved to supporters shouting slogans pledging the contituency to the BJP.

Modi later offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath and Kaal Bhairav temples.

“Fortunate to visit the Baba Vishwanath temple. Har har Mahadev. Also lucky to pay obeisance at the Kaal Bhairav temple,” Modi tweeted.

The BJP, which is locked in a tight electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh with the SP-Congress combine and the Mayawati-led BSP, hopes that a good performance in the eastern parts of the state will take it past the majority mark in the 403-member state assembly.

The only other time Modi held a roadshow here was in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls after he picked Varanasi as one of his seats. The BJP swept the 2014 polls in Uttar Pradesh, winning 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats, along with its ally Apna Dal.

Three years later, the BJP camp is once again relying heavily on Modi to deliver the goods in Uttar Pradesh where it has been out of power for 15 years. It has organised many more public meetings of the prime minister than was anticipated earlier.

Quite a few public events of Modi are lined up in the region tomorrow and the day after, the final day of campaigning for the seventh and last phase of polling on March 8.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are also holding a roadshow in the city. BSP chief Mayawati too addressed a public rally at Rohaniya, around 20 km from Varanasi

source : gulfnews