Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and five ministers in his outgoing cabinet will be in the fray in the sixth and penultimate round of Uttar Pradesh elections on March 3.
As many as 57 seats spread across 10 districts of Gorakhpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ballia, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharthnagar will go to poll in the sixth phase of voting.
Prominent candidates whose fate will be sealed on Thursday include Adityanath, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister of State for Basic Education Satish Chandra Dwivedi, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh and Ministers of State Sriram Chauhan and Jai Prakash Nishad.
Swami Prasad Maurya, a former minister in the Adityanath government, is also contesting from Fazilnagar in Kushinagar on Thursday, on SP ticket.
Of the 57 seats, 37 have been declared red, where more than three candidates have criminal cases registered against them. The last phase of seven-phased UP election will be held on March 7 and the results will be allowed on March 10.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will stay in Varanasi for three days — from March 3 to March 5, the last day of canvassing for the seventh phase of elections. The PM addressed a rally in Robertsganj on March 2. He will on March 3 be addressing public meetings in Jaunpur and Chadauli districts going to polls on March 7, the last round.
As many as 2,14,62,816 people are eligible to seal the fates of 676 candidates in these constituencies. Eleven seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates.
Also, read | Five reasons why Gorakhpur Sadar is unlike any other contest in UP Elections 2022
Adityanath will contest from Gorakhpur Sadar (Urban) where the Samajwadi Party has fielded Subhavati Shukla, the widow of late BJP leader Upendra Dutt Shukla, against Adityanath. BJP's Satish Chandra Dwivedi is contesting from Itwa assembly constituency in Siddharthnagar. Dwivedi is up against Samajwadi Party’s candidate and former UP assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey.
UP minister Sriram Chauhan is in the fray from Khajani assembly seat (SC) in Gorakhpur, Chauhan is the sitting MLA from Dhanghata in Sant Kabir Nagar district. Jai Prakash Nishad is the BJP candidate from Rudrapur constituency in Deoria. He is pitted against SP's Ram Bhual Nishad and BSP's Suresh Tiwari.
Surya Pratap Shahi, another minister, is up against SP's Brahma Shankar Tripathi from Pathardeva seat.
The BJP dominated the seats in this belt in the last assembly elections by bagging 46 of 57 seats. Its ally Apna Dal won one seat.
This time, SP is challenging the BJP with the help of smaller regional allies like Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, an influential leader of the backward classes in Purvanchal. Rajbhar’s seat Zahoorabad goes to polls on March 7, the last phase.
(With agency inputs)
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