Express News Service
LUCKNOW: A total of 57 constituencies across 10 districts covering the religious-political belt of UP from Ambedkarnagar in the central region to Gorakhpur and Kushinagar in the far east bordering Bihar and Nepal on the other side recorded a moderate – 55.79 per cent – voters’ turnout in the penultimate phase of ongoing 7-phased Assembly election of the state on Thursday.
However, the voting continued till 6 pm and the final figures of Phase-6 will be revised by the state election commission on Friday. After phase-6, voting for 292 of the 403 Assembly seats has been completed. The final phase of polling in the remaining 54 seats across seven districts including Varanasi will be held on March 7.
The bigwigs whose fate was sealed in phase-6 included UP CM Yogi Adityanath who made his debut in assembly electoral politics from Gorakhpur Urban. Others included BJP deserter Swami Prasad Maurya from Fazilnagar in Kushinagar, leader of opposition in state assembly Ram Govind Chaudhury of SP from Bansdih and UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu from Tamkuhiraj also in Kushinagar. Besides the fate of seven Yogi ministers was also at stake in this phase.
The voters’ turnout in the sixth phase of the current elections has been slightly lower than the corresponding phase of 2017 Assembly polls as it was 55.52 per cent.
In the sixth phase, of 57 seats up for grabs across Ambedkarnagar, Deorai, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, Balrampur, Maharajganj, Basti, Kushinagar and Siddharthnagar, 48 were won by the BJP and its allies. The Bahujan Samaj Party had fared better than the Samajwadi Party in this phase in 2017 winning five seats. The SP could manage to bag just two seats and Congress one. Amanmani Tripathi had won as independent from Natutanva.
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In phase-6, the fate of total of 676 candidates was sealed in the EVMs. Around 2.14 crore voters were eligible to cast their vote to elect their favourite MLA. The trend of voting in phase-6 was in consonance with the corresponding phase in 2017 assembly polls. While Ambedkarnagar recorded the highest 62.66 per cent voters’ turnout, Balrampur logged the lowest count at 48.90 per cent. In 2017, Ambedkarnagar has registered 64.05 per cent voting and Balrampur was at bottom with 50.91 per cent.
Ambedkarnagar was considered to be a bastion of BSP till 2017 when the party had won three out of five assembly constituencies. However, this time, it would be interesting to BSP bastion on March 10 as the party stalwarts including Lalaji Verma from Katehari, Ram Achal Rajbhar from Akbarpur and Tribhuvan Dutt from Alapur are contesting on SP ticket from their respective constituencies.
The district which stood out in phase-6 defying the voting pattern of 2017 polls was Gorakhpur, the traditional bastion of Yogi Adityanath. In the land of Gorakshnath, the 11th-century saint, 58.89 per cent of voters turned up to exercise their franchise which surpassed 55.44 per cent recorded in 2017.
Similarly, Kushinagar has been the other district to have registered 59 per cent voting which was slightly higher than 2017 when 58.16 per cent of voters had turned up to cast their vote.
Meanwhile, Ballia had 52.01 per cent, Balrampur 48.90 per cent, Basti 57.20 per cent, Deoria 56 per cent, Mahrajganj 59.50 per cent, Sant Kabir Nagar 52.21 per cent and Siddharth Nagar 51.60 per cent.
Prominent among those who cast their votes in the morning included Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Basic Education Minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi, Rural Development minister Upendra Tiwari, Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and former minister Narad Rai.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer (ACEO) BDR Tiwari said that polling was going on peacefully in the state.
In the re-polling at a polling station in Handia assembly seat in Prayagraj district, 59.55 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm.
