Lucknow: Over 55% voter turnout was recorded in the seventh and last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections for 54 seats on Monday. Voting started at 7 am. It ended at 4 pm in the Chakia (Chandauli), Robertsganj and the Duddhi (Sonbhadra) seats, while in the rest of the segments, it continued till 6 pm.
The districts that voted in this phase are Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra. The voting percentage was recorded at 55.13%, according to the Election Commission's 'Voter Turnout' application.
According to the Election Commission, the polling percentage in the seventh phase of the Assembly elections in 2017 was 59.56%. This time, Azamgarh witnessed 53.69% voting, Bhadohi 54.26%, Chandauli 61.99%, Ghazipur 55.60%, Jaunpur 53.55%, Mau 57.02%, Mirzapur 54.93%, Sonbhadra 58.69%, and Varanasi 52.79%.
A total of 613 candidates are in the fray for the 54 seats, including those in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Parliamentary segment Varanasi.
The fate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar and several state ministers will be decided in this round, in which 2.06 crore people were eligible to vote. Besides state Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari, who is contesting for the Varanasi South seat, other ministers in the fray in the last leg of the elections are Anil Rajbhar, Ravindra Jaiswa, and Girish Yadav.
