Uttar Pradesh elections: All eyes on Varanasi as polling ends tomorrow

An intensive campaign by rival leaders Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of SP and his ally Rahul Gandhi of the Congress has raised the stakes for the BJP

Varanasi, Mar 7: All eyes will be on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi as voters in 40 seats in the UP assembly polls' seventh and last phase cast their votes on Wednesday. Modi has put in an unprecedented level of canvassing in this phase which has the least number of seats going to polls, but an intensive campaign by rival leaders Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of SP and his ally Rahul Gandhi of the Congress has raised the stakes for them.

The BJP, which is hopeful of capturing power in the state after 15 years in the wilderness, virtually functioned out of the holy city as its chief Amit Shah and other top party leaders shifted their base here weeks ahead of the polls. However, it was Modi who left no stone unturned as he criss-crossed his constituency that has five assembly seats. He held two back-to-back road shows, addressed four public meetings, visited an influential ashram and offered tributes to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri -- all in a span of three days -- as he sought votes for his party candidates.

The BJP holds three and the Samajwadi Party two of the five seats in the outgoing assembly but the former is making a determined bid to oust rival parties from Modi's turf. But it has met a formidable challenger in the SP-Congress alliance and a massive road show by Yadav and Gandhi through the heart of the city has sparked some concerns in the saffron camp.

Political observers believe that such a keen contest and campaigning should result in a relatively high polling percentage. The seats going to polls also include home turf of three union ministers -- Mahendra Nath Pandey, Anupriya Patel and Manoj Sinha. Pandey, Patel and Sinha are MPs from Chandauli, Mirzapur and Gazipur respectively. In the last assembly polls, SP had won 23 of the 40 seats, BSP won 5, the BJP 4 and the Congress 3 with the rest won by others.

PTI