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On the eve of the sixth and penultimate phase of the marathon Uttar Pradesh elections, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani reports on what's at stake.
As the voter turnout reduces and tensions rise -- while the first and second phases recorded 64 and 65 per cent turnouts, respectively; the third and fourth phases recorded a 61 per cent turnout; and the fifth phase saw a voter turnout of only 57.36 percent -- all eyes are now on the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on March 4.
This phase will see 635 candidates vying for 49 seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh spread over seven districts -- Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh and Ballia. It will also see the battle of the bigwigs of UP politics.
The main focus in the sixth phase will be on the Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency of former Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The Azamgarh district has 10 assembly seats of which the SP had bagged 9 in the 2012 assembly elections when MSY -- "Netaji" for his followers -- used to call the shots in the party. This time, however, Netaji has not been campaigning for the party, and it is up to his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to repeat the 2012 performance of the SP, which is now aligned with Congress.
The SP has fielded 40 candidates and Congress 9 in the sixth phase.
Focus will also be on Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adityanath, who can be banked on to play the religion card for all it's worth.
Other prominent candidates in this phase include jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari, who is in the fray from Mau for the Bahujan Samaj Party, Ansari's son Abbas , who is contesting from the adjoining Ghosi seat in Mau district, BSP defector 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 defectors Ambika Chowhdury and Narai Rai, who are contesting on BSP tickets from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar.
In the sixth phase, a lot will also be at stake for Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who represents Deoria in the Lok Sabha.
In the 2012 assembly polls, of the 49 seats, 27 were won by the SP, 9 by BSP, 7 by Bharatiya Janata Party, 4 by Congress and 2 by others.
In the rhetoric leading up to this phase, the BSP has brought up the issue of dividing UP into four smaller states, including Purvanchal or Eastern UP.
"Your under-developed district can't be developed till the creation of a separate state. Efforts in this direction will be stepped up if the BSP comes to power. This election, you need to punish the Congress, the BJP and SP, which have been opposing creation of Purvanchal," Mayawati had said at a rally in Gorakhpur.
In Maharajganj Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed: "People have made BJP victorious in the 5 phases that took place; you only have to give us a bonus in the 6th and 7th phase."
And in Ballia, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh alleged Akhilesh Yadav had reversed the good work done by his father, and lambasted the younger Yadav for joining hands with Congress.
This phase of the polling also has an unflattering number of criminal candidates. According to data collected by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of 635 candidates in the fray, 126 (20 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 109 or 17 per cent of the candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women, etc.
Like in the previous phases, the BJP and BSP have fielded maximum number of candidates with criminal cases in this phase too.
160 or 25 percent of the candidates are crorepatis -- with the top three belonging to the BSP.
The richest is Shah Alam Urf Guddu Jamali, who has assets worth ₹118 crores, and is contesting from Mubarakpur (Azamgarh). He is followed by Vinayshankar from Chillupar (Gorakhpur) with self declared assets worth ₹67 crores and Aijaj Ahmad, Nautanwa (Maharajganj) with assets worth ₹52 crores.
The poorest candidates, according to their affidavits, are Rakesh, an Independent contesting from Chauri-Chaura (Gorakhpur); Munna, another Independent contesting from Gopalpur constituency (Azamgarh) and Tej Bahadur Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal contesting from Mubarakpur (Azamgarh).
On the education front, 338 or 53 percent of the candidates have declared an educational qualification of graduate or above, while 229 or 36 per cent of the candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th standards.
Only 60 or 9 pr cent candidates in this phase are female.
The seventh and final phase of the UP polls will be held on March 8 across 7 districts, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi.
The road so far...
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