On the day of the polling for the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the elections have reached the decisive stage and each vote to ruling Bharatiya Janta Party is a step towards making the state India's number 1 economy.
Mr Adityanath said that it is time to decide between the BJP and terror-supporting people, apparently a swipe at Samajwadi Party (SP).
"Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections have reached the decisive stage. You have seen developmental projects in the last five years, be it from AIIMS inauguration to Kushinagar International Airport. It is time to decide between us and terror-supporting people. Each of your votes will make Uttar Pradesh India's No 1 economy," Mr Adityanath.
Mr Adityanath offered prayers at Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur before casting his vote.
The polling for the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held on Thursday.
The voting began at 7 am today and will continue till 6 pm. Polling will be held for 57 Assembly constituencies spread across 10 districts including Gorakhpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ballia, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharthnagar.
A total of 2,14,62,816 electorates including 1,14,63,113 males, 99,98,383 females and 1,320 third genders are expected to exercise their right to franchise to decide the fate of 676 candidates.
With 676 candidates in the fray in the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tops the chart of the prominent faces of this phase. The Chief Minister is contesting the polls from Gorakhpur Urban.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has pitted Khwaja Shamsuddin while Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Subhavati Shukla, who is the wife of late Upendra Dutt Shukla, a former BJP leader, against Mr Adityanath. Meanwhile, Congress' Chetna Pandey will also fight against Mr Adityanath.
Besides Mr Adityanath, prominent faces in this phase are state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu, who is contesting from Tamkuhi Raj seat, Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit as minister to join the Samajwadi Party and is contesting from Fazilnagar seat, and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Govind Chaudhary, who is contesting from Bansdih seat.
Congress' Ajay Kumar Lallu is facing BSP's Sanjay Gupta and SP's Udaynarayan Gupta on Tamkuhi Raj seat.
SP's Swami Prasad Maurya will contest from Fazilnagar seat against BJP candidate Surendra Singh Kushwaha, the son of incumbent BJP MLA Ganga Singh Kushwaha. Maurya will face BSP's Ilyas Ansari, Congress' Sunil Singh and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Harish Chandra Yadav.
SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary is facing Congress' Puneet Pathak on Bansdih seat. Puneet's grandfather, Bachha Pathak is a former vice president of the state Congress. His grandfather had been an MLA from Bansdih for seven terms between 1967 and 1996 and was also a minister in the UP government.
SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary also faces Nishad Party's Ketki Singh and BSP's Manti Rajbhar.
Polling for the seventh phase, which will be the last phase, will be held on March 7. The counting of votes will be done on March 10.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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