Bitter poll campaign with sharp attacks and counter-attacks came to a close this evening for the 49 Uttar Pradesh assembly seats, the voting for which is to be held on March 4 with SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav's Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency being in focus.
Assembly segments of Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency of firebrand BJP leader Yogi Adityanath, and Mau, where jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari is in fray, also figure in this sixth and penultimate phase of polling.
The campaigning saw BJP state president KP Maurya likening rivals SP, Congress and BSP to different types of venomous "snakes" and "social cancer" and urging people to eliminate them by voting for the BJP.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav countered BJP saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conceded defeat in the polls by talking about a hung house.
While mustering votes for BJP, Modi sought to prove wrong the prophets of doom after demonetisation saying the latest GDP data showed note-ban did not affect growth rate but rather improved it.
Mocking economists, he said, "Hardwork, in fact, is much more powerful than Harvard."
Sounding highly optimistic of the poll outcome for BJP, Modi said the debate now is whether BJP will get two-third or three-fourth majority.
"Never have elections gone one way like this... There had been no dearth in enthusiasm of voters in all five phases," he said.
The PM also caught UP Chief Minister on the wrong foot and cited government website to nail him.
"Life in Uttar Pradesh is short and uncertain... Uttar Pradesh resembles Saharan Africa," Modi said quoting a para from the state government's official website up.Gov.In.
Modi also ridiculed Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his latest "coconut juice" remark.
"There is a Congress leader, and I want to pray for his long life... He recently went to Manipur to address an election rally. There he told farmers that he would extract juice from coconuts and send it to London. In fact, a coconut possesses water (and not juice) and it is grown in Kerala," he said.
"It is like setting up a potato factory," Modi said referring to Rahul's earlier remarks that he wants to set up potato factories in Uttar Pradesh.
As campaigning reached its crescendo, BJP President Amit
Shah held a road show in Gorakhpur today. Similar road shows were organsied at Kushinagar and Azamgarh.
During her campaign, BSP supremo Mayawati said the public is "disenchanted with BJP" due to the "wrong policies" of the Union and the state governments and accused Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah of "dreaming to destroy the state".
The sixth phase of polling, the penultimate of the 7-phase exercise, will also cover some districts bordering Nepal.
Around 1.72 crore voters, including 94.60 lakh men and 77.84 lakh women, are eligible to cast their votes in this phase, which would decide the fate of 635 candidates.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh and Ballia.
Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency has 10 assembly seats, of which SP had won nine in 2012, but this time Mulayam has not addressed a single meeting in his parliamentary constituency.
In the present phase, the prestige of Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who represents Deoria in the Lok Sabha, too is at stake, besides that of Adityanath.
BJP is contesting 45 seats and its ally Apna Dal one. BJP's another ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party is contesting 3 seats. While BSP has fielded candidates on all 49 seats, SP is contesting 40 seats and Congress 9 seats.
Prominent candidates in this phase include BSP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya from Padrauna (Kushinagar), former BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi from Pathardeva (Deoria), Shyam Bahadur Yadav (SP), son of former Governor Ram Naresh Yadav from Fulpur Pawai (Azamgarh), SP turncoats Ambika Chowhdury and Narai Rai, who are contesting on BSP ticket from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar.
While Mukhtar is contesting from Mau, his son Abbas is in fray from adjoining Ghosi seat in Mau district.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, of the 49 seats, 27 were won by the SP, 9 by BSP, 7 by BJP, 4 by Congress and 2 by others.
There will be 17,926 polling booths in this phase.
The highest number of 23 candidates are contesting from Gorakhpur and the least candidates, numbering seven are in pitted for5 Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau district.
