New Delhi: The voting for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections began on Monday morning for 51 assembly seats spread across 11 districts, including five in the Terai region near the Nepalese border. Over 18.4 million voters, including 9.6million women, will decide the fate of 608 candidates. Over 49% voting has been recorded till 3pm.
The districts these constituencies cover include Gonda, Balrampur, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar (earlier Mau), Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
The voting in Alapur has been deferred to 9 March due to the death of the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Chandrashekhar Kanaujia. Other prominent candidates include SP government minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, who will face Congress’s Amita Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Garima Singh in Amethi.
Here are the key developments and highlights from the fifth phase of polling in UP:
■ 4.15pm: BSP chief Mayawati addressing a rally in Kushinagar. She said, “BJP’s ally Shiv Sena discriminates against the people of poorvanchal.” (CNN-News18)
■ 4.00pm: It would have been better if the BJP gave tickets to Muslims for the ongoing Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday said. He, however, said the BJP believes in taking along all the sections of the society and the community will be adequately compensated after the party forms government in the state. (PTI)
■ 3.45pm: A total of 156 (25.5%) candidates in the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have not declared their PAN details.
■ 3.30pm: 365(60%) out of 612 candidates have not declared income tax details.
■ 3.10pm: 49.43% turnout as of 3pm. Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is addressing an election rally in Deoria. He asks, “Why Narendra Modi is not waiving off farmers’ loan when he could waive them off for Vijay Mallya.” (CNN-News18)
■ 2.30pm: BJP national president Amit Shah addressing an election rally in Ballia. He says, “SP government is blocking Modi government’s attempts to develop UP. The Modi government has allocated over Rs2.5 trillion for UP’s development.” (@BJP4India)
■ 2.15pm: Over 40% voter turnout recorded till 2pm, PTI reported.
■ 2.00pm: The issue of division of Uttar Pradesh has once again bounced back to the centre stage of state politics with BSP supremo Mayawati raking up the issue that had been lying dormant in the polls till now. “If BSP forms government, it will not sit idle...it will divide UP into four smaller states, including Purvanchal, as proposed by the previous BSP government,” Mayawati had said at an election meeting in Gorakhpur on Sunday. (PTI)
■ 1.40pm: Voter turnout as of 1pm is 38.72%.
■ 1.30pm: “Our alliance partners will be made part of BJP government in UP when our party comes to power. PM Narendra Modi at an election rally in Mau. (PTI)
Main highlights of the PM’s speech:
— SP-Congress sinking ship. (PTI)
— Do whatever possible to defeat BJP, Modi dares SP-Cong and BSP; but don’t ruin the future of UP. (PTI)
— SP, BSP are creating an environment so that no party gets a majority. But, UP needs a stable BJP government to develop. (CNN-News18)
— Punish Congress, SP and BSP for neglecting UP for years, says PM.(PTI)
— Nehru had set up committee for eastern UP’s development but see the criminal mindset, the report kept lying for 50 years and we have started work on it. (PTI)
— UP government refused to purchase power from the Centre even at cheaper rates, says PM. (PTI)
— Akhilesh says he made the donkey remark out of fun... is it also fun that police stations are in bad shape and law and order in a shambles: PM. (PTI)
■ 1.20pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address an election rally in Mau.
■ 1.00pm: An estimated over 25% of voters exercised their franchise till midday on Monday in the fifth phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. “Over 25 per cent polling was recorded till noon,” poll officials said in Lucknow. (PTI)
Polling is on by and large peacefully in 51 Assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts of the state.
■ 12.40pm: Earlier in an interview to CNN-News18, Afzal Ansari whose Qaumi Ekta Dal recently merged with the BSP contended that SP is not going to win. He said, “I have been campaigning for the party from Pratapgarh to Ayodhya and now Poorvanchal. SP has lost steam after third phase. In Ayodhya SP leader Azam Khan lost his cool on seeing BSP flags fluttering across the city. We are doing very well.”
■ 12.20pm: Attacking both PM Modi and BSP supremo Mayawati in his election rally in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said, “Samajwadi people don’t talk about kabristan and shamshan, we talk about laptops.”
Taunting PM Modi’s radio show Mann ki baat, Akhilesh said, “he should sometimes talk about work also.”
On Mayawati, Akhilesh reiterated that, “she can tie-up with the BJP anytime. She reads her speech from papers and people sleep in her rallies.”
■ 12.00pm: In the ongoing 5th phase, 117 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, which is 19% of the 612 candidates analysed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Highlights of their findings include:
— 96 (16%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.
— 9 candidates have declared cases related to murder under Indian Penal Code Section-302.
— 24 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder under Indian Penal Code Section-307.
— 8 candidates have declared cases like assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty (Indian Penal Code Section-354), rape (IPC Section-376) and husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC Section-498A).
— Partywise candidates with criminal cases: 21(41%) out of 51 candidates from BJP, 23 (45%) out of 51 candidates from BSP, 8 (27%) out of 30 candidates from RLD, 17(41%) out of 42 candidates from SP, 3(21%) out of 14 candidates from Indian National Congress(INC), and 19(9%) out of 220 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
— Out of the 612 candidates, 168 (27%) are crorepatis. 43(84%) out of 51 candidates from BSP, 38(75%) out of 51 candidates from BJP, 32 (76%) out of 42 candidates from SP, 7(50%) out of 14 candidates from INC, 9(30%) out of 30 candidates from RLD and 14(6%) out of 220 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs1 crore.
—The average of assets per candidate contesting in the fifth phase of the UP assembly elections is Rs1.56 crores.
■ 11.30am: 27% voting reported till 11.00am. Faizabad–27.03%, Amethi–26%, Balrampur–24.75%, Gonda–22%. (Hindustan)
■ 11.15am: Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Varanasi rally said “will make Uttar Pradesh the best state.” (Hindustan)
■ 11.00am: Delhi high court sets aside trial court order granting custody parole to MLA Mukhtar Ansari for canvassing in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. Justice Mukta Gupta allowed the Election Commission’s plea seeking cancellation of Ansari’s parole. (PTI)
■ 10.30am: Union minister and BJP’s leader Uma Bharti said that BJP should have given more tickets to Muslim candidates in UP. However, Vinay Katiyar snubs her view later asking: “Why should we give them ticket when they don’t vote for us. Minority politics will be defeated. No Muslim candidate will win.” (CNN-News18)
Also read | The controversial legacy of Vinayak Savarkar
■ 10.15am: An estimated 12 to 13% of voters turned out to exercise their franchise till 10am during the fifth phase of polling Uttar Pradesh. (PTI)
■ 10.00am: Prominent people to so far cast their ballot include, members of the royal family of Amethi - Sanjay Singh, Amita and Garima who are contesting against each other on Congress and BJP respectively. These two are contesting against the controversial SP minister Gayatri Prajapati. BJP MP Vinay Katiyar too was among early voters.
■ 9.30am: 10.77% voting recorded so far. Bahraich–11.93%, Amethi–11.8%, Sultanpur–9.7%, Gonda–11%. (Hindustan)
■ 8.30am: The maximum number of candidates—24—are contesting from Amethi. Kapilvastu and Etwa seats (both in Siddharth Nagar district) have just six candidates each in the poll fray.
Also read | UP assembly elections: Fifth phase of polling starts
■ 8.00am: In 2012, SP won 36 out of 51 seats in the region, including Alapur; BJP and Congress won 5 each; while BSP was limited to just three seats.
