Lok Sabha polls Campaigning ends for 5th phase in UP

LUCKNOW: Campaigning for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, in which the political prestige of four Union ministers including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is at stake, came to an end on Saturday.

State capital Lucknow along with 13 other parliamentary constituencies will go to polls on May 20.

The other seats going to polls in the fifth phase in the state are Mohanlalganj (SC), Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda.

Addressing rallies in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exuded confidence his party will score a hat-trick in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress, according to him, had a mission to score just 50 seats to "save its honour".

Union minister who are in the electoral fray in this phase are: Defence minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani (Amethi), Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is also in the fray from Rae Bareli, which was represented by Sonia Gandhi.

Over 2.68 crore voters will exercise their polling rights to elect from a total of 144 candidates fielded by various political parties.

The BJP gave tickets to 11 of its sitting Lok Sabha MPs in this phase, while it had fielded new candidates in Barabanki (SC) seat and Kaisarganj.

In the INDIA bloc, the Congress has fielded K L Sharma from Amethi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC) and Pradeep Jain 'Aditya' from Jhansi. The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates are in the poll fray on the rest of the seats.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh is eyeing a fourth term From Lucknow. He is up against sitting SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow Central.

From the neighbouring constituency of Amethi, Union minister Smriti Irani is in the poll fray.

In Kaisarganj Lok Sabha seat, the contest is between BJP’s Karan Bhushan Singh, son of former MP and ex-president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and SP’s Bhagat Ram.

In Faizabad Lok Sabha seat (which covers the temple town of Ayodhya), the contest is mainly between sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh, who is seeking a hat-trick, and Awadhesh Prasad, the SP MLA from Milkipur (SC) assembly constituency in Ayodhya district.

In Hamirpur, the poll contest is between BJP's Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel, eyeing a third term, and SP's Ajendra Singh Lodhi.

In Gonda, BJP's Kirti Vardhan Singh, who is eyeing a fifth term, is facing a contest from SP's Shreya Verma.

The main electoral contest in Banda is between RK Singh Patel, who is seeking a third term, and Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel of the SP.

Vinod Kumar Sonkar, who is eyeing a hat-trick of Lok Sabha wins, will be facing SP's Pushpendra Saroj, son of SP leader Indrajeet Saroj, for Kaushambi (SC) constituency.

The campaigning for this phase saw leaders of various political parties attacking and counter-attacking each other.

On May 17, PM Modi claimed that the Congress and the SP will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to "take lessons" from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on where to use bulldozers.

The prime minister addressed public meetings in Barabanki, Fatehpur and Hamirpur.

He accused the opposition INDIA bloc of planning to give their “vote bank” a big chunk of reservation in government jobs and education meant for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on May 12 had launched a blistering attack on the Gandhi family in its Rae Bareli bastion, accusing Sonia Gandhi of "spending more than 70 per cent of her MP funds on minorities".

The Union home minister spoke at poll meetings in Raebareli, Pratapgarh and Gonda.

On May 17, Shah attacked Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi for calling Rae Bareli a "family seat". He also made a scathing attack on the Congress for turning down invitations for Ram Mandir's 'Pran Pratishtha' in Ayodhya, and said if the Congress came to power, they would put the "Babri lock" in the temple again.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said May 17 that she is giving her son to the people of Rae Bareli and "Rahul will not disappoint you".

"Rahul will not disappoint you," she said as Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stood by her side on the stage.

Speaking before his mother, Rahul Gandhi said the "youth across the country have made up their mind that they don't want Narendra Modi", and asserted that the INDIA alliance government will be formed after June 4, the day results will be declared.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on May 17 hit back at PM Modi over his "khata-khat" jibe at the SP and the Congress, and said the public is now going to remove him from the top post "fata-fatt, fata-fatt, fata-fatt (quickly)".

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 17 asserted that PoK "was, is and will remain ours".

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on May 15 (Wednesday) announced that if the INDIA bloc is voted to power, it will double the quantity of free rations provided by the BJP government to the poor.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BSP chief Mayawati also campaigned for their party candidates.