Uttar Pradesh Assembly election: Polling for fifth phase begins

LUCKNOW: The Fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh polls for 51 seats across 12 districts began today. 

The fifth phase will decide the fate of 607 candidates who are in the fray in this phase with maximum of 24 candidates in Amethi and minimum of six each in Kapilvastu and Etwa seats of Siddharth Nagar district.

A total of 1.84 crore voters will exercise their franchise at 18,822 polling booths today.

The districts which are going for polls are  Amethi, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Barabanki, Ambedkarnagar, Baharaich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Basti, Siddharthnagar and Sant Kabir Nagar.

The Central Para Military Forces are engaged in conducting flag march to instil a sense of security among electorates.

Over one 1,600 hamlets and over 2,300 polling stations have been identified as sensitive and critical and special security measures have been taken in these localities.

Arrangements have been made at 1,792 polling stations for webcasting of poll process.

A total of 607 candidates including 40 women are in the fray. More than one crore 81 Lakh eligible electorates including over three lakh first time voter youth will decide the political fate of contestants.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded its nominees in all 51 segments while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in contest in 50 seats. The saffron party has left one seat to its ally Apana Dal. The Samajwadi Party nominees are in fray from 43 constituencies and its ally congress is in contest in 14 seats.  All major political parties and alliances have conducted intensive campaigning for this phase of poll.  The Election Commission has taken several measures to improve poll percentage as only 57 percent votes were cast in this phase in the previous assembly polls.  Meanwhile BJP, BSP, Samajwadi Party, Congress and RLD have intensified their campaigning for remaining two phases of polls.

BJP president Amit Shah, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, party's state unit president Keshaw Prasad Maurya, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati have addressed several public meetings in different districts where polling will be held in sixth and seventh phases of elections.