UP Election Fifth Phase: Voting ends, nearly 54% turnout recorded

Senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Sunday alleged that "mafia and criminals entered politics in Uttar Pradesh after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) formed an alliance to form the government in the state in 1996".

Speaking to the media, Congress leader charged, "In 1996 when the BJP-BSP formed government, 21 ministers were mafias with criminal backgrounds. The BJP is responsible for Mafiawad in UP. The BJP should be blamed for the criminalisation of politics in the state."

Tiwari said that the Union Minister for Defence Rajnath Singh had replied that everything is fair in politics when he was the Chief Minister after he had levelled the allegations of the BJP fielding criminals in politics in the state Assembly.

Congress leader PL Punia on Sunday who cast his vote at a polling booth in Barabanki in the fifth phase of the ongoing Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, attacked the BJP saying state people have decided to oust the party from the state.

UP records 34.83% polling across 12 districts till 1 pm

Targetting the BJP and the Samajwadi Party stating that their tenure can be characterized by 'jungle raj' and 'gunda raj', Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) National Spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria on Sunday said that SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav will go to Saifai and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will go to Gorakhpur, while asserting that BSP Chief Mayawati will become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the fifth time.

Speaking to ANI, Bhadoria said, "As far as the question of BJP or Samajwadi Party is concerned in Uttar Pradesh, both the parties inflict communal violence. During their regimes, Goondaraj and Jungle raj prevailed in the state. I would also like to say that when the results of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will come on March 10, Yogi Adityanath will go to Gorakhpur and Akhilesh Yadav will go to Saifai his home town and Mayawati will become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh."

As polling for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections is underway, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday appealed to the people to vote responsibly and keep the progress of the state in mind while casting their votes.

Taking a Twitter, Congress general secretary wrote, "My dear sisters and brothers of UP, while voting, remember that your one vote can play an important role in the progress of the state, employment for the youth, welfare of farmers, women empowerment and can help to make policies in the interest of the public."

"Your vote can change politics, vote responsibly," she tweeted in Hindi.

Amid the polling for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, 'Raja of Amethi' Sanjay Sinh who is contesting from the Amethi constituency expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be voted to power again. Sanjay Sinh belongs to Amethi's royal family. He's the BJP nominee from the Amethi Assembly seat.

Speaking to ANI today, he said, "Amethi has never been anyone's bastion, be it Gandhis or anyone else. It has always belonged to the people...This is a war against oppressors."

Sinh's wife, Amita Singh, a former badminton player, lent her support to her husband in the poll campaign.

"Aaditya Thackeray had been to UP. I think there is going to be a change in UP. People have made up their minds. In the atmosphere we saw, there is a neck to neck fight. The support for Akhilesh Yadav shows the change," says Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut

UP records 21.39% polling across 12 districts till 11 am

Jansatta Dal Loktantrik's (JDL) Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias 'Raja Bhaiya' on Sunday said that the only challenge for him is to break his own victory margin record in the Kunda Assembly constituency. He cast his vote at a polling station in Benti on Sunday.

Singh told ANI that breaking his own victory margin record remains the only challenge for him.

Singh had won with a huge margin of 1.04 lakh votes in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

"Voting being done peacefully at all places, barring reports of glitch in EVMs at some places. Necessary action being taken," says Additional Chief Electoral Officer, BD Ram Tiwari, Lucknow

Derided by the BJP as a mascot of the criminal-and-mafia raj during Akhilesh Yadav's previous rule in Uttar Pradesh, jailed don-politician Mukhtar Ansari is out of the poll fray this time and his son is instead contesting as the opposition alliance candidate in his Mau seat.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders have been taking Mukhtar Ansari's name to attack the Samajwadi Party on the issue of law and order and how the Yogi Adityanath government ran bulldozers on his properties.

Mukhtar Ansari's 30-year-old son Abbas Ansari has been fielded in the election by the SP's ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar as the coalition nominee in the seat, where voting will take place in the seventh and last phase on March 7.

The BJP has nominated Ashok Singh in the seat, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded its state president Bhim Rajbhar and the Congress Madhavendra Bahadur Singh.

UP records 8.02% voting till 9 am 

With the polling for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections underway on Sunday morning, people in Ayodhya's Sahadatganj area said that they are voting on the issue of development and law and order.

While voting commenced at 7 am today, people had begun coming to the polling booths from 6.30 am following the COVID-19 protocols to cast their vote.

Speaking to ANI, Pooja Shukla, a voter, said, "Security of women is the main issue for us. We are voting on the issue of the law and order. We are voting against corruption and hooliganism."

Rajnish Sharma, another voter, said that the issue of employment remains key in the polls along with the law and order situation.

"Adequate security deployed at all polling booths. Polling taking place in a peaceful atmosphere. Action will be taken against anyone who tries to create problems or indulge in hooliganism to get votes, FIR will be registered and they'll be sent to jail," says Prayagraj SSP Ajay Kumar

"In 1996 when BJP-SP formed govt, 21 ministers were mafias, had a criminal background. BJP is responsible for mafiawad in UP, they should be blamed. When I raised the issue in Assembly, Rajnath Singh had replied 'everything is fair in politics," says Pramod Tiwari, Congress on UP polls

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister and BJP candidate from Allahabad West constituency Sidharth Nath Singh who cast his vote on Sunday at Jwala Devi Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College for the fifth phase of state Assembly elections said that the BJP will cross the 300-mark in the state and retain power.

Singh after casting his vote while speaking to reporters here today said, "We'll cross 300-mark and form govt again. People have to make a decision and they'll vote for development works."

Earlier in the day, Singh and his family offered prayers at Baba Mandir in Prayagraj as voting in the fifth phase of the state Assembly election began.

"People of Rampur Khas will create history again. The main issues raised by Congress - of farmers, youth, women security & inflation - are the issues with which we went to public. People of UP will place their trust in Congress," says Aradhana Misra, Congress candidate from Rampur Khas, UP

The districts where polling is being held are Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda

Around 2.24 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase of polling for the Uttar Pradesh elections

• State Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is among 692 candidates, who are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts
• 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

Voting for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Elections begins; 692 candidates in 61 assembly constituencies across 12 districts in fray.

Voters to decide the fate of Dy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, minister Sidharth Nath Singh, Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra & others today.

Ahead of the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Saturday said the people in Uttar Pradesh will vote for BJP on the basis of the development works done by the party in the last five years.

"In the first and second phases, it looked like a competition but BJP was ahead. In the fifth phase, I think BJP will be in a very strong position. Right from the infrastructure to the safety of women, Yogi government has worked in every sector in the state", she said.

She added that the BJP has a good track record of work in Uttar Pradesh.

About two dozen BJP and SP supporters were booked and nine arrested for allegedly clashing with each other in Khudadat village of Matera assembly constituency, police said on Saturday. A senior police officer said the fight broke out Friday night between supporters of SP candidate Madhuri Verma and BJP candidate Arunveer Singh outside a ‘dhaba’. "After the campaigning ended at around 11.00 pm, Vinod Verma alias Dadua, nephew of Madhuri Verma, the SP candidate from Nanpara, was having dinner at a 'dhaba'. “He and his friends were allegedly in an inebriated state,and Vinod had a hot talk with someone on the phone," Additional Superintendent of Police (rural) Ashok Kumar said. "After sometime, Karanveer Singh, son of BJP candidate Arunveer Singh, and his friends, were stopped by Vinod outside the dhaba, and abuses were hurled and a fight broke out,” he said, adding a number of people from both sides were injured in the brawl. A case has been registered against 11 people, including Karanveer Singh and Vinod Verma, and 10-15 other people for violating section 144 of the CrPC and Model Code of Conduct, said the officer. Dilip Verma, former MLA and husband of Madhuri Verma, said his nephew was campaigning for SP's Matera candidate Maria Shah, when hundreds of BJP supporters tried to kill him. In his turn, BJP candidate Arunveer Singh said Vinod Verma hurled abuses at him when he was returning home Friday night after campaigning, and beat his son up.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who is contesting State Assembly elections from Kaushambi's Sitharu constituency in the fifth phase of polling, on Saturday, exuded confidence in his victory and said that "lotus will bloom" with a huge margin. He also claimed that there will be no trace of the Samajwadi Party in the Sitharu constituency while Bahujan Samaj Party had already lost its presence here. Speaking to news agency ANI, Maurya said, "Sitharu is going to the polls tomorrow. I am fully confident that lotus will bloom here with a huge margin. Everybody knows me here because I am the son of this constituency. There will be no trace of SP here while BSP has already lost its presence."The Minister also lauded the double engine government for the development works done in Uttar Pradesh since Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre and in the state."The double engine government has worked for the welfare of poor, farmers, youth, women empowerment, security, etc. I am confident that the people of Sitharu will give me blessings as I have done a lot of work here," Maurya stated.