UP election: 5th phase has known faces and issues

Jubilee News Desk

Several stakes are involved in the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls where about 2.24 crore voters are expected to vote Sunday on 61 assembly constituencies. Till 9 am 8.02% votes have been polled.

Elections are being held in Ayodhya where the Ram Mandir Andolan of the BJP is seeded while voters in Amethi and Raebareli, once considered Congress bastions, are also out to vote. Chitrakoot another religious place and Prayagraj are in this phase only.

Significant districts to vote include Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Bahraich, Shravasti, Gonda, Amethi, Raebareli, Ayodhya, the epicentre of the Ram temple movement.

Prominent faces in the fray for the fifth phase include Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is contesting from the Sirathu assembly seat in Kaushambi district. He is facing Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) candidate Pallavi Patel, the sister of Anupriya Patel, who’s party Apna Dal (S) is an ally with the BJP. Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) is an alliance partner with Samajwadi Party, a key opponent in the election for the BJP.

Minister Siddharth Nath Singh from Allahabad West, Rajendra Singh, alias Moti Singh, from Patti (Pratapgarh), Nand Gopal Gupta Nadi from Allahabad South and Ramapati Shastri from Mankapur (Gonda) are also seeking votes. In 2017, BJP had won 38 seats out of 55, while the SP had retained 15 and the Congress had won two seats.

Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra is fighting from Rampur Khas seat of Pratapgarh. Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, is in the fray from Kunda. There are a total 692 candidates.

The temple issues that has been BJP’s for the past over three decades is expected to make an impact upon seats in Ayodhya and around.

Another issues that is rocking minds of the voters is of stray cattle which is prominent issue in some of the districts where polling is going on. Stray cattle has been an issue and this local issue caught the attention of big BJP leaders too where the PM in one of his campaign said to bring a solution for this issue.

The fifth round of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh has 185 candidates with criminal cases declared against them out of total 693 in the fray, including 141 with serious charges, according to the analysis done by the association for democratic reform (ADR) from the affidavits filed by candidates.