The 5th phase of ongoing elections in Uttar Pradesh got concluded on Monday with the state registering a voters turnaround of around 57.36%. The election was held in 11 districts of UP including places like Amethi and Faizabad.
Talking to media after the conclusion of 5th phase, chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, T Venkatesh said that till 5 PM on Monday, 57.36% people had used their voting rights and the figure might go a little up as there were still voters in the queues after 5pm. The districts which were under polls in the current phase included Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich and Shravasti.
Whole election in UP has been gaining a lot of headlines because of the importance the state has in national politics. In the 5th phase of elections, the focus was on Amethi and Ayodhya. While Amethi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi, Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has been in BJP’s agenda since the party was formed. Ayodhya falls under Faizabad district. BJP has had Ayodhya seat for a while in the past, however, Samajwadi Party had won it in last UP assembly elections.
Out of the 52 seats which were under polls in this phase, 37 were won by Samajwadi party in 2012. 5 each were won by BJP and Congress, whereas BSP and Peace party took 3 and 2 seats respectively.
The voting in Alapur was cancelled due to the death of SP candidate Chandrashekhar Kanaujia and it will now be held on March 9th.