Lucknow: In the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election 2022, 61 seats in 12 districts of the state will go to polls tomorrow i.e. on Sunday. State Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said that preparations for the fifth phase of polling have been completed and voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. He said that necessary arrangements have been given to conduct the elections in a free, fair, and transparent manner. According to the information, 692 candidates are in the fray in the fifth phase, whose political fate will be decided by about 2.24 crore voters.
Voting has been done on 231 seats
After the completion of the fourth phase of polling, out of 403 assembly seats in the state, 231 seats have been voted so far and after voting in 61 seats on Sunday, the voting for 292 seats will be completed. After this, in the last two phases on March 3 and March 7, voting will be held in 111 seats. The election schedule is proposed in the state in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. In the fifth phase, polling will be held in Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Bahraich, Shravasti, Gonda, Amethi, and Rae Bareli districts. The campaigning for 61 assembly seats in these 12 districts came to an end at 6 pm on Friday.
The Deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh is in the fray
In the fifth phase, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is the BJP candidate from Sirathu assembly constituency in his home district Kaushambi against whom Samajwadi Party has fielded Apna Dal (Communist) leader Pallavi Patel. Pallavi Patel’s sister and Union Minister Anupriya Patel have campaigned in favor of Maurya, while on Friday, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav and SP MP and famous actress Jaya Bachchan also campaigned for Pallavi Patel. Sirathu had arrived. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also addressed election meetings on Friday in support of several BJP candidates, including Maurya.
Voting in religiously important areas like Ayodhya, Prayagraj, and Chitrakoot
In the fifth phase, polling will be held in religiously important areas from Ayodhya to Prayagraj and Chitrakoot. Sanjay Singh, the head of the former princely state of Amethi, is the candidate from BJP this time in Amethi, while state minister Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh, Patti of Pratapgarh district, Khadi and Village Industries Minister Siddharth Nath Singh West assembly seat of Prayagraj district, Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi is contesting from the South seat of this district, Social Welfare Minister Ramapati Shastri is contesting from Mankapur in Gonda district and Minister of State Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay is contesting from Chitrakoot assembly seat.
Raja Bhaiya also from Kunda
Raghuraj Pratap Singh (Raja Bhaiya), who has been winning elections from Kunda in Pratapgarh district since 1993, is in the fray this time on a traditional seat on his Jansatta Party ticket. In the Pratapgarh district itself, Apna Dal (Kamarawadi) President Krishna Patel is giving a fight to the BJP as the candidate of the Samajwadi Alliance. Krishna Patel is the mother of Anupriya Patel, a minister in the Narendra Modi government. Congress leader in the assembly Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ is also trying her luck from her traditional Rampur Khas seat in the Pratapgarh district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigned in the fifth phase of the constituencies where voters would exercise their franchise on February 27. Rival Akhilesh Yadav, BSP chief Mayawati and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited different constituencies to challenge the ruling BJP.
Sonia Gandhi had a rally in her constituency Rae Bareli
Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed a rally for the voters of her constituency Rae Bareli, her first rally in the ongoing elections in Uttar Pradesh. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi addressed a joint rally in Amethi, a long-time Gandhi family stronghold, which the BJP won in the 2017 assembly elections as well as the 2019 general election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed several rallies in Amethi, Prayagraj, Kaushambi, and Bahraich for the victory of the BJP. Modi mainly attacked the opponents on issues of vote bank politics and familyism.
