Yogi, 5 ministers in fray for sixth phase of UP polling

As the election juggernaut roles into the sixth phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on March 3, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his five ministers will be in the fray.

The ten districts going to the polls on March 3 are Gorakhpur, Ambedkarnagar, Ballia, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharthnagar. The prominent faces in the fray in this phase are Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister of State for Basic Education Satish Chandra Dwivedi, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, and Ministers of State Sriram Chauhan and Jai Prakash Nishad.

In 2017, BJP had held sway in this region winning 46 seats while its ally Apna Dal and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) won one seat each. The situation has changed this time. The SBSP has deserted BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party. The new alliance of SP has given an electoral dent to the BJP, as this time Rajbhars are likely to vote for the SP alliance.

The Education Minister in the Yogi cabinet, Satish Chandra Dwivedi, will be contesting from Siddharthnagar's Itwa Assembly constituency. He is locked into a direct contest with the Samajwadi Party candidate and former UP assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey. In Baansi, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh will be contesting against SP's Monu Dubey. Kiran Shukla (Congress) and Radhe Shyam Shukla (BSP) are also in the fray.

From Gorakhpur's Khajani Assembly seat (SC), Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs Sriram Chuahan is in the fray. Chauhan is a sitting MLA from Dhanghata in Sant Kabir Nagar district. Khajani will witness a three-corner contest, though the rivals are terming Chauhan as an outsider.

From Deoria's Rudrapur seat, Fisheries Minister Jai Prakash Nishad is the BJP candidate and he is pitted against SP's Ram Bhual Nishad and BSP's Suresh Tiwari.

Disappointed over not getting a ticket from the saffron party, Tiwari, a BJP MLA from Barhaj, had joined the BSP.

From Pathardeva, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi has locked horns with SP's Brahma Shankar Tripathi.

The sixth phase has 27 percent tainted candidates, 38 percent crorepatis while 182 candidates have criminal cases registered against them. BSP candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari from Gorakhpur's Chillupar tops the list of crorepatis. Rakesh Pandey, the SP candidate from Ambedkarnagar's Jalalpur, has assets of over Rs 63 crore while BSP's Umashankar Singh from Balia's Rasra has declared assets of Rs 54 crore.

Of the 57 seats, 37 are under red alert (polling areas where more than three candidates have criminal cases registered against them). Uttar Pradesh Election Watch Association for Democratic Reforms has analyzed the affidavits of 670 candidates. Among the tainted candidates, 23 percent have 151 cases of serious nature registered against them. BSP candidate from Sahjanwa, Sudhir Singh has a maximum 26 cases registered against him, followed by SBSP candidate Ashok Chauhan from Kushinagar's Khadda who has 19 cases registered against him. Azad Samaj Party candidate from Gorakhpur, Chandrasekhar has 16 cases against him. Eight candidates have women-related criminal cases registered against them, while two have rape cases against them and eight have attempt to murder cases against them.