New Delhi: Polling for the crucial sixth phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and the first phase in Manipur started on Saturday. In the second last phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, voting will take place for 49 seats in 7 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh while in Manipur’s first phase voting is taking place for 38 constituencies out of the total 60 constituencies.
Polling in Uttar Pradesh is crucial for the incumbent Samajwadi Party government, challengers Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) because there are pockets of dominance for all three major political parties. The sixth phase is crucial for Samajwadi Party because its stronghold, Azamgarh, a key constituency won by Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014 Lok Sabha, is witnessing polling.
The second last phase of Uttar Pradesh is also witnessing the dominance of BJP as Gorakhpur, the area of influence of Member of Parliament (MP)Yogi Adityanath is going to polls and another crucial player in this phase of polling is criminal turned politician Mukhtar Ansari whose area of dominance in Ghazipur district is also going to polls.
The importance of the eastern Uttar Pradesh in which there are a total of 89 seats which will go to polls in the sixth and seventh phase can be understood from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents the Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi which is scheduled to go to polls on 8 March, in the last phase of polling.
Meanwhile, in the first phase of polling in Manipur, the areas going to polls are Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and the hill districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), political parties in their campaigns mainly focused on the continuing economic blockade imposed by the United Naga Council and the state government’s inability to break it. The other important issues which hogged the attention of the political parties are alleged lack of development, massive corruption, misappropriation of funds and worsening law and order in the state.
