UP Polls 2022: On Monday, Uttar Pradesh is going for the seventh and last phase of Assembly Elections 2022. All eyes will be on BJP’s (Bharatiya Janta Party) performance in PM Modi’s Lok Sabha Constituency Varanasi and Samajwadi Party’s show of strength in Akhilesh Yadav elected Azamgarh.
The impact of the smaller allies of the BJP and SP such as the NISHAD Party, Apna Dal (S), SBSP, and Apna Dal (K) will also determine the fate of the respective big partners in this phase.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, BJP had won 29 seats out of 54, while its allies Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Apna Dal(S) bagged seven. On the other hand, the SP had bagged 11 seats, NISHAD party one, and BSP six seats. In the current elections, the NISHAD party is an ally of the BJP whereas SBSP is with the Samajwadi Party.
Apart from Varanasi and Azamgarh, the seven districts that will witness the polls are Chandauli, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Man, and Sonbhadra.
In this phase, 2.06 crore people are eligible to vote and these will decide the fate of 613 candidates, which include 75 women candidates.
The three urban seats of Varanasi – Varanasi North, Varanasi South, and Varanasi Cantonment are considered safe seats for the BJP party as it has always won the election in these three Varanasi seats in the past several elections.
In Azamgarh district, the Samajwadi Party had won nine out of 10 seats in 2012 assembly polls but managed to win only five in 2017. The voting on Monday will test the influence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in the district where Yadav and Muslim votes significantly determine the outcome.