Lucknow: A high-decibel campaign for the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls for 40 seats, spread over seven districts, came to an end this evening with the voting to be held on March 8. With the conclusion of campaigning for the seventh phase at 1700 hrs, the high-voltage electioneering for the past more than one month in the entire state came to an end after the poll dates were announced by the Election Commission on January 4. Though 40 seats would go to polls in the last phase, election would be held on March 9 in Allapur in Ambedkar Nagar district . Counting of votes will be held on March 11 for all 403 seats.
Of the 40 seats at stake in the last phase, Varanasi was the centre of attraction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hitting the campaign trail in his parliamentary constituency and high voltage canvassing by other political heavyweights including Samajwadi Party president and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BSP president Mayawati, among others. All parties left no stone unturned to woo voters in the seats, including three Left wing extremist-infested districts of Mirzapur, Sonebhadra and Chandauli. Polling will be held between 0700 hrs and 1700 hrs for all seats but in the three Naxalite-hit districts, it will end one hour earlier at 1600 hrs.
In the seventh phase, 1.41 crore electorate, including 64.76 lakh women, can exercise their franchise in 14,458 polling booths. There are 535 aspirants in the fray for the last phase. Varanasi Cantonment has 24 candidates and Kerakat seat in Jaunpur district just six. In the 2012 Assembly polls, out of these 40 seats, 23 went to SP, five to BSP, four to BJP, three to Congress and five to others. There are five UP ministers in the fray along with president of regional party Bharatiya Samaj Party which is an alliance partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Among the hopefuls in the final phase are UP ministers Parasnath Yadav (Malhani), Shailendra Yadav (Shahganj), Omprakash Singh (Jamania), Surendra Patel (Sevapuri) and Kailash Chaurasia (Mirzapur), Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar (Zahurabad), Apna Dal president Krishna Patel (Rohania), Congress leaders Ajai Rai (Pindra), Laliteshpati Tripathi (Marihan) and Nadim Javed (Jaunpur). Some musclemen and their close kin are also in the fray, including Dhananjay Singh(Malhani), Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sibatullah Ansari(Mahumudabad), sharpshooter Munna Bajrangi's wife Seema Singh(Mariyahu), mafia don Brajesh Singh's brother Sushil Singh(Saiyadraja) and Vijay Mishra(Gyanpur). (UNI)