Phase 4 of the UP assembly election began at 7 a.m. on Wednesday (23rd February). The polls will continue till 6 p.m. 23% of voter’s turnout has been recorded till 11 a.m. The election is being conducted in 9 districts with 59 assembly seats.
The seats include the capital of the state Lucknow along with Raebareli (the bastion of Sonia Gandhi), Lakhimpur Kheri, Unnao, Pilibhit, Sitapur, Hardoi, Banda, Fatehpur.
The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in 2019 had bagged 51 seats out of the 59 seats, whereas 2 seats had gone to Congress, 2 to Bahujan Samaj Party, 4 to Samajwadi Party, and 1 to BJP ally Apna Dal.
In Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary seat, Raebareli is a focus point after sitting MLA Aditi Singh quit the Congress joined the BJP. Manish Chauhan, from her former party member, is contesting against her and RP Yadav from the Samajwadi Party. Ms. Singh is the daughter of five-time Congress MLA Akhilesh Singh, who died in 2019.
After casting her vote at a polling booth at Lalpur Chauhan, Raebareli, the BJP candidate Aditi Singh said, “I want people to vote and make the voting percentage high. Congress is nowhere in the race”.
The Lakhimpur seat is seen as a potentially crucial indicator of the fate of the BJP and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government. Last year in October, eight people, including three party workers and a journalist – died in violence that followed four farmers being run over by an SUV.
Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son, Ashish Mishra, is a murder accused in the case. Ashish Mishra is currently out on bail. The BJP government holds all eight assembly seats. Both Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) have repeated their candidates from the last term.
60,000 policemen have been positioned for security across 59 assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh along with 800 paramilitary forces. School students are knocking door-to-door to urge people to vote.
To motivate women voters, the state police have created 137 “pink booths” manned by women officers. Christ Church College in Lucknow has announced that it will award 10 marks to the students whose parents will vote.
Deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh casts his vote in Lucknow. BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also cast his vote in Lucknow along with BSP chief Mayawati who casts her at the Municipal Nursery School polling booth in Lucknow.
Folk Singer Malini Awasthi sings and urges people to cast their votes.
BJP MLA Pankaj Singh and a candidate from Noida said, “We are going to get around 350 seats. Development work done, work has been done to protect our identity, culture & traditions. I think people have accepted it. SP-BSP-Congress are going to become history like Article 370 and 35A.”
BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj says that his party will win all six seats in Unnao with a majority. Based on all his campaigning, he believes that CM Yogi will form Govt again by breaking his own 2017 record. The numbers might also go up to 35. He cast his vote at Gadan Khera Primary School in Unnao.
UP assembly election is divided into seven phases. First, three phases of the election have already been conducted, and the remaining three will go on polls on 27th February, the 3rd, and the 7th of March.
Results will be declared on 10th March.
Published By: Khushboo Mehta
Edited By: Kritika Kashyap
