LUCKNOW: Around 57 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the seventh and last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for 54 seats spread across nine districts of Purvanchal on Monday.
Voting commenced at 7 am in all the nine districts comprising Chandauli, Varanasi , Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Mau, Bhadohi, Ghazipur and Sonbhadra. While the voting ended at 4 pm in three constituencies -- Chakia (Chandauli), Robertsganj and Duddhi (Sonbhadra), while in the rest of the segments, it ended at 6 pm. The final voting percentage will be released by Election Commission on Tuesday,
said an official.
As per the figures of the last assembly elections, the voting percentage of 2017 was slightly higher at 59.56 per cent.
This time, Azamgarh witnessed 53.69 per cent voting, Bhadohi 54.26 per cent, Chandauli 61.99 per cent, Ghazipur 55.60 per cent, Jaunpur 53.55 per cent, Mau 57.02 per cent, Mirzapur 54.93 per cent, Sonbhadra 58.69 per cent and Varanasi 52.79 per cent, it showed.
The trend of voting in phase-7 was in consonance with the corresponding phase in 2017 assembly polls. While Chandauli recorded the highest 59.59 per cent voters’ turnout, Azamgarh remained at the bottom of the tally with 52.34 per cent of voters’ turnout. Even in Varanasi, which is PM Modi’s parliamentary constituency and considered to be his stronghold, registered a low voters’ turnout at 52.79 per cent.
In 2017, Varanasi has recorded 61.62 per cent of voters’ turnout while Chanduali hs registered 63.01 per cent voting. Even in 2017, Azamgarh was at the bottom with 56 per cent voters’ turning up to exercise their franchise.
Meanwhile, other seats including Bhadohi saw 54.31 per cent voting, Ghazipur 53,67 per cent, Jaunpur 53.61 per cent, Mau 55.04 per cent, Mirzapur 54.95 per cent and Sonbhadra 56.95 per cent.
A total of 613 candidates were in the fray for the 54 seats and their fate was sealed by 2.05 crore electorate.
The big wigs in fray in the last leg of UP election included Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar and several state ministers of Yogi cabinet and BJP turncoat Dara Singh Chauhan from Ghosi seat in Mau. Dara Singh Chauhan, who resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) along with Swami Prasad Maurya in mid-January, this year.
Even mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari has been in fray from Mau Sadar seat. Besides state Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari, from Varanasi South seat, other ministers in the fray in the last leg of the elections are Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).
The last phase of the UP elections saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the command of BJP campaign in his hands and staying in Kashi for 29 hours holding road shows, delivering speeches and doing all the other gestures to convince people eve on religious lines. It is believed that ‘Modi factor’ has a sway in Varanasi and adjoining districts of Purvanchal.