Rallies come to a close in UP; Modi, Priyanka make last-minute pitch
Feverish campaigning came to an end on April 27 evening for the 13 fourth-phase Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh with top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, making a last-minute pitch for votes.
Modi addressed rallies in Kannauj and Hardoi, two of the UP seats which go to the polls in the fourth phase of voting on April 29. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav too spent much of the day in Kannauj, the seat from where his wife Dimple Yadav is seeking re-election. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was in Unnao on the last day of electioneering. In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these 13 seats in the state. Only Kannauj, won by the Samajwadi Party, defied the Modi wave that year among them.
The other constituencies where elections will be held on April 29 are Shahjahanpur (SC), Kheri, Hardoi (SC), Mishrikh (SC), Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi and Hamirpur. Apart from the back-to-back rallies in Kannauj and Hardoi on April 27, Modi addressed another in Sitapur where polling will take place in the fifth phase. BJP chief Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh have also crisscrossed the region over the recent days.
The Congress has a good presence in at least three of the constituencies — Unnao (Annu Tandon), Farrukhabad (Salman Khurshid) and Kanpur (Sriprakash Jaiswal). Congress president Rahul Gandhi held meetings in Kheri, Unnao and Kanpur during the run-up to the polling for these seats. His sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-led roadshows in Kanpur, Jhansi and Hamirpur. Most of these seats are seeing a direct fight between the BJP and SP-BSP alliance with Kannauj being a matter of prestige for the SP. An impressive road show was held there when Dimple Yadav filed her papers.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati came to Kannauj to attend a joint rally with the SP and when Dimple Yadav touched her feet on the dais, it became a talking point. The BJP is not giving up the fight in the SP bastion. Party president Amit Shah has told workers to spare no effort to wrest the seat. Altogether, 2,38,88,367 people are eligible to cast their vote at 27,513 booths in the 13 constituencies. A total of 152 candidates are in the fray with a maximum of 15 in Shahjahanpur. Jalaun has the minimum number of nominees at five. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and polling in the state is spread over all seven phases.
