LUCKNOW: In the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 13 seats in the crucial Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 54 per cent till 5 pm on Saturday. The turnout was 58.14 per cent in the same phase in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Voting in the 13 seats, including the VVIP constituency of Varanasi where PM Modi is in the fray, ended at 6 pm sealing the fate of 144 candidates. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term in the Lok Sabha from here.
Besides Varanasi, the other seats which went to the polls on Saturday included Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC).
According to the ECI, the polling percentage recorded in the 13 seats was -- Ballia 50.56%, Bansgaon 50.06%, Chandauli 58.19%, Deoria 54.13%, Ghazipur 53.53%, Ghosi 53.19%, Gorakhpur 52.53%, Kushinagar 56.04%, Maharajganj 58.66%, Mirzapur 55.83%, Robertsganj 54.25%, Salempur 50.21% and Varanasi 54.83.
The bypoll for the Duddhi (reserved for Scheduled Tribes) assembly constituency in Sonbhadra district was also held on Saturday. The poll percentage in Duddhi stood at 54.48 till 5 pm.
In the last phase of the elections, besides PM Modi, three Union ministers including Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (S) from Mirzapur, Dr Mahendra Chandra Pandey of BJP from Chandauli and Pankaj Chaudhury also of BJP from Maharajganj were in the fray.
Moreover, in Gorakhpur, the bastion of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, two actors of the Bhojpuri film industry -- Ravi Kishan of the BJP and Kajal Nishad of the SP – were locked in a tough battle. Ravi Kishan is the sitting MP seeking a second term from Gorakhpur. Gorakhpur was earlier represented in the Lok Sabha by Adityanath five times.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath exercised his franchise in Gorakhpur, while Union Minister Anupriya Patel, a candidate from Mirzapur, cast her vote in Mirzapur.
From Ghazipur, the bastion of gangster-turned-politician Ansari brothers, Afzal Ansari was leading the opposition assault on an SP ticket while in Ballia, the son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar, was trying to protect the political legacy of his father.
According to the EC, voting for all the Lok Sabha seats in the seventh phase, barring Robertsganj, ended at 6 pm.
In the Robertsganj (SC) Lok Sabha seat and Duddhi assembly constituency, voting concluded at 4 pm.
In Ballia, a 70-year-old man collapsed and died at a polling booth set up at a primary school in Chak Bahuddin village, an official said.
Voters in Ballia's Math Dhajju Giri village boycotted the polls over their demand for road connectivity and electricity supply. Local SHO Dharamveer Singh said there were about 900 voters in the village.
