Lucknow: Voting under the seventh and final phase of elections in nine districts of Uttar Pradesh (UP 7th Phase Polling), including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi, began at 7 am on Monday. State Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said on Sunday that in the seventh phase, polling started at 7 am in 54 assembly constituencies of Varanasi, Chandauli, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Robertsganj, Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh and Jaunpur districts.
He said that the polling in Chakia of Chandauli district and Robertsganj and Duddhi assembly constituencies of Sonbhadra district would continue till 4 pm. Voting will be held in the remaining 51 assembly constituencies till 6 pm. Shukla informed that 2.06 crore voters will be able to exercise their franchise in the seventh phase. Of these, 1.09 crore are males, 97.08 lakh females and 1,027 are transgender voters. In this phase, 613 candidates are in the fray in 54 assembly constituencies out of which 75 are women candidates. Of the 54 seats in the seventh phase, 11 are reserved for scheduled castes and two for scheduled tribes.
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Voting underway at National Inter College in South Varanasi area in the seventh phase of #UttarPradeshElections2022 pic.twitter.com/i8j1mgQKI0
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) March 7, 2022
Shukla informed that a total of 23,614 polling stations and 12,210 polling stations have been set up for the seventh phase of elections. The Commission has also deployed 52 General Observers, nine Police Observers and 17 Expenditure Observers to keep a watchful eye on the polling. Apart from this, 1,621 Sector Magistrates, 195 Zonal Magistrates, 222 Static Magistrates and 2,796 Micro Supervisors have also been deployed. The Commission has also posted a Senior General Observer, a Senior Police Observer and two Senior Expenditure Observers at the state level, who will stay in the area and supervise the entire election process.
It is noteworthy that in these 54 seats in the seventh phase of the 2017 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies Apna Dal (S) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SubhSP) got a total of 36 seats. Of these, BJP got 29 seats, Apna Dal (S) got four and SubhaSP got three seats. At the same time, Samajwadi Party (SP) got 11, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got six and Nishad Party got one seat. The Nishad Party, which last fought on its own in 2017, is in alliance with the BJP this time, while the SubhaSP has tied up with the SP.
The electoral fate of many ministers of Uttar Pradesh will be decided in the last phase of the elections. These include Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi South), Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur). Apart from this, just before the assembly elections, former minister Dara Singh Chauhan (Ghosi-Mau) left the BJP and left the BJP and left the BJP this time in alliance with the SP, and former minister Om Prakash Rajbhar (Jahurabad-Ghazipur), gangster Voting is also going on in the same phase in the seat of candidate-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari (Mau Sadar) and Bahubali former MP Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur).
It is noteworthy that in the preceding six phases of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, polling has been held in 349 assembly constituencies. Voting is on for the last phase. The results of the assembly elections will be declared on March 10.