New Delhi: The fifth phase of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held on Sunday following a high octane campaign by all the major parties. While the BJP deployed its top brass including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to lead its campaign blitz while Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi led the charge for Congress.
Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati also campaigned ahead of the fifth phase of polling. The SP has emerged as a strong challenger to the ruling BJP this time.
Speaking to reporters, State Chief Election Commissioner Ajay Kumar Shukla on Saturday said that campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday, and all arrangements have been made for the fifth phase polling. Polling will start at 7 am on Sunday and end at 6 pm.
The fate of 692 candidates will be decided by over 2.24 crore voters in 61 seats in the districts of Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Bahraich, Shravasti, and Gonda.
Among them, the erstwhile Congress bastions of Amethi and Raebareli will be of special interest as it remains to be seen how the grand old party performs there. Ayodhya, the centre of the Ram temple movement will also go polls in the fifth phase.
Several heavyweight candidates including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Chandra Maurya, Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona and State Minister Siddharth Nath Singh are in the fray. Maurya will take on Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) candidate Pallavi Patel from the Sirathu Assembly seat in Kaushambi district.
While Singh will contest from Allahabad West, other ministers Rajendra Singh, alias Moti Singh will contrast from Pratapgarh, Nand Gopal Gupta Nadi has been fielded from Allahabad South and Ramapati Shastri is contesting from the Mankapur seat. The Congress Legislature Party leader will contest from Rampur Khas seat.
The fifth phase will also witness a family feud among the Apna Dal leadership. Apna Dal (K) leader and mother of Union Minister Anupriya Patel, Krishna Patel is contesting from the Pratapgarh constituency, while the Minister leading a rival faction of the party named after her father Sonelal Patel has left the seat to BJP in a bid to negate her mother's electoral ambitions. With the completion of the fifth phase on Sunday, 292 out of the 403 seas in Uttar Pradesh would have gone to polls.
Also read:UP Elections: Low voter turnout in fourth phase cause of concern for BJP
