Sixth phase campaign ends in UP, rebels worry SP

Gorakhpur: Campaigning for the sixth and penultimate phase of Uttar Pradesh’s Assembly elections ended on Thursday. A total of 49 seats across seven eastern UP districts will go to the polls on Saturday.

In 2012, the Samajwadi Party won 27 seats in this phase. The party won eight of the nine seats in SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s parliamentary constituency Azamgarh.

This time, the party is facing a few rebel candidates, and the patriarch has not campaigned for the SP following differences with his CM son Akhilesh Yadav.

The BSP, which won nine seats in 2012 in this phase, has fielded don-tuned-politician Mukhtar Ansari from Mau, his son Abbas Ansari from Ghosi and his brother Sigbatullah Ansari from Ghazipur to woo Muslim voters.

The BJP could manage only seven seats in 2012. The party relies on former BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya OBC votes. He joined the BJP and is now contesting from Kushinagar. BJP MP Yogi Adityanath has influence in Gorakhpur and some other districts in this phase.