Lucknow: As the voting for last phase of UP polls begins today morning at 7 am, large numbers of voters were reportedly turned out to cast their votes for 40 assembly seats spread over seven districts.
In this seventh and final phase of Uttar Pradesh elections all eyes are on Varanasi seat as this is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Apart from Modi, some other prominent candidates who are in fray include former Cabinet minister Om Prakash, Parasnath Yadav, Ajay Rai, former MP Dhananjay Singh, Sigbatullah Ansari brother of Mukhtar Ansari and Seema Singh wife of jailed mafia Munna Bajrangi luck will be stored in voting machines.
In this last phase of voting, near about 1.41 crore voters, including 64.76 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in 14,458 polling booths and 8,682 polling centres to decide fate of 585 candidates, including 51 women.
Along with five Assembly segments under Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency the prime focus will also be on three districts which are Sonbhadra, Mirzapur and Chandauli as these are Naxal-affected areas.
The other districts where polling is going on in this phase are Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Bhadoi with tight security has been put in place in near about seven districts.
Apart from Naxal-hit Duddhi, Robertsganj and Chakia seats, where polling will end at 4 PM, polling will be held between 7 AM to 5 PM in all constituencies.
The counting of votes will be done on March 11th in all the seven phases of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
Brisk polling in last phase of UP polls
The Saffron party is contesting on 32 seats and its associate parties Apana Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party-are contesting on 4 seats each.
The BSP has fielded its nominees on all seats. Whereas the SP is contesting 31 seats and its alliance Congress is in race for the remaining seats.
Out of total number of 40 seats, 23 went to the SP, 5 won by the BSP, 4 gone in the pocket of BJP, 3 to the Congress and 5 to others in the 2012 state Assembly polls.
In all, 535 candidates, including BSP (40), BJP (32), SP (31), Cong (9), RLD 21, and NCP (5) are in the fray.
The maximum numbers of 24 candidates are from Varanasi Cantt seat, the minimum numbers of 6 candidates are contesting from Kerakat (SC).
