Crucial last phase of UP polls to be held today

BATTLE OF BALLOTS: Around 1.41 crore voters are eligible

VARANASI: The seventh and last phase of polling to pick a new Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held on Wednesday in seven districts of Poorvanchal region.

Around 1.41 crore voters are eligible to take part in the balloting in the sprawling region that includes Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency. The other districts which will see voting are Sonebhadra, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Bhadohi and Jaunpur.

While the onus is on the ruling Samajwadi Party to retain the 24 of the 40 seats it won in 2012, a lot is also at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Modi himself as the party swept the Poorvanchal in the 2014 Lok Sabha battle.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), trying hard to regain power in the country’s most populous state, has put in all its might to add to its 2012 tally of five seats. The Congress, now a Samajwadi ally, won three seats in 2012, the Quami Ekta Dal one and THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday hinted that cloud seeding could be one possible measure to tackle the worst drought that Kerala has faced in a century.

Noting that his government has done everything humanely possible to handle the situation, Vijayan said: “Cloud seeding is one method to see that rains are artificially created...this phenomenon has been successfully tested at a few places.”

He was quick to point out, however, three independents too made it to the outgoing assembly.

In Poorvanchal, poverty is a dominant theme. In his speeches, Modi spoke a lot on joblessness and poverty.

The BJP did not win even a single seat in five of the districts in 2012. The last phase of election is a litmus test for BJP stalwarts.

Former Chief Minister and now Home Minister Rajnath Singh comes from Chandauli. Mahendranath that the idea was just being mulled over, and has not yet been cleared.

Vijayan said this while replying to a motion moved by Congress legislator Shafi Parambil who flayed the state government for declining a debate on the issue.

Parambil pointed out that a debate could have helped the government get various suggestions on how to tackle the drought, in which not just humans but even animals in the state’s forests were suffering. Pandey, an MP, is a member in the Modi government.

Ghazipur MP Manoj Sinha is Minister of State for Railways. Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, a BJP ally, has a lot at stake too.

Her parliamentary constituency Mirzapur goes to polls on Wednesday.

BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak says the party was confident of doing “exceedingly well” in Poorvanchal.

“We have performed beyond our expectations in the last six phases. We are sure of getting maximum seats in the final phase,” Pathak said.

The Samajwadi Party expelled most of its powerful Poorvanchal leaders after an internal party feud involving Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his estranged uncle Shivpal Singh.

Senior cabinet minister and Akhilesh Yadav aide Rajendra Chowdhary says the region has always stood by the Samajwadi Party. The BSP is banking heavily on the appeal of Mukhtar Ansari and his family.

“It was State Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan who informed the house today (Tuesday) that the state is facing the worst-ever drought situation in the past 100 years,” Parambil said, adding that he found it strange that the government was unwilling to discuss the issue.

An angry Parambil said if a situation where people are desperately running around for drinking water did not merit the attention of the house, “which issue are you going to take up for discussion”. — IANS