-Rajesh Mishra
Lucknow: In the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, voting will be held on Sunday for 61 seats in 12 districts, including the religious cities of Ayodhya, Chitrakoot and Prayagraj. Here BJP’s claims of cultural nationalism to development of religious places are tested, then the issues of opposition like stray animals, unemployment, inflation will also be on the test.
In the fifth phase, polling will be held in Amethi, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda districts. In this phase, 692 candidates are in the fray, whose political fate will be decided by around 2.24 crore voters. In the first phase, where the majority of Jat, Muslim Gujar voters, the majority of minorities in the second, the dominance of Yadav and Lodh castes was clearly visible in the third, then in the fifth phase there is a population of mixed backward castes. In the eyes of analysts, it is called the area of the Mandal, then due to being the area of three major religious cities, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has played the Kamandal card fiercely here.
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Luck of many veterans will be locked in EVMs
In the voting to be held on Sunday, the fate of five ministers and many veterans along with Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya will be locked in the EVMs. Raghuraj Pratap Singh, who is winning the election continuously from Kunda of Pratapgarh, is in the fray on the traditional seat this time on his Jansatta Party ticket. In Pratapgarh district itself, Apna Dal (Kamarawadi) president Krishna Patel is contesting the BJP as a candidate of the Samajwadi Alliance.
Sanjay Singh BJP candidate in Amethi
Congress leader in the assembly Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ is also trying her luck from Rampur Khas seat. Sanjay Singh, the head of the former princely state of Amethi, is a candidate from BJP this time in Amethi. State Minister Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh is contesting from Patti of Pratapgarh district, Minister Siddharth Nath Singh from West assembly seat of Prayagraj district, Minister Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi from South seat of this district, Minister of State Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay is trying his luck from Chitrakoot assembly seat. Huh. Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh’s son Prateek Bhushan is in the electoral fray from Gonda Sadar. At the same time, there is a fight between Aarti Tiwari and Abhay Singh, wife of Khabbu Tiwari in Gosainganj.
In the last 2017 elections, BJP had won 47 seats.
In the last 2017 assembly elections, the BJP had won 47 out of 61 seats in this phase and the SP had won 41 seats in the 2012 elections. However, this phase was very bad for the SP in the 2017 assembly elections. In the last elections, it had got only five seats in these districts. The condition of BSP was even worse. She could register her victory in only three seats.