Picture : Twitter / ANI
Voting for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls began on Sunday morning, with state deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates, who are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts. The voting started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
After casting his vote , Maurya told ANI, “I appeal to the people to vote in as many numbers as possible. We will secure 300+ seats and form govt.”
Around 2.24 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase. The districts where polling is being held are Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda. Amethi and Raebareli, once considered Congress bastions, and Ayodhya, the epicentre of the Ram temple movement, too will vote on Sunday.
Prominent faces in the fray are deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is contesting from the Sirathu in Kaushambi district. He is facing Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) candidate Pallavi Patel.
Other ministers in the fray are Siddharth Nath Singh from Allahabad West, Rajendra Singh from Patti (Pratapgarh), Nand Gopal Gupta Nadi from Allahabad South and Ramapati Shastri from Mankapur (Gonda).
Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, who is the MLA from Kunda since 1993, is once again in the fray as Jansatta Dal candidate, with old aide Gulshan Yadav contesting against him on the Samajwadi Party ticket. Union minister Anupriya Patel’s mother and Apna Dal (K) leader Krishna Patel is contesting from the Pratapgarh seat.
The Apna Dal (K) has entered into an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
Union minister Anupriya Patel, heading a rival faction of the party named after her father Sonelal Patel, however, has handed over the seat to the BJP to challenge her mother Krishna Patel.
Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhana Mishra Mona is fighting from Rampur Khas of Pratapgarh.
Jansatta Dal Loktantrik’s Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias ‘Raja Bhaiya’, who is contesting from Kunda, after casting his vote at a polling booth in Benti, was quoted as saying by ANI , “Breaking your own record is a challenge in itself…will break my record.”
