Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh):The seventh phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began at 7 am on Monday, the major districts which are likely to face a fierce competition between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) include Azamgarh, Varanasi, and Mirzapur divisions. As many as 613 candidates are in the fray for 54 constituencies spread across nine districts of Mau, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, and Bhadohi (Sant Ravidas Nagar). BJP hopes to retain its dominance in the state while SP not only aspires to hold Azamgarh but is also trying to defeat the ruling party by putting its focus on wooing young voters on the issue of employment.
Voting is also underway at Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency. It comprises Pindra, Ajagara, Shivpur, Rohaniya, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt, and Sevapuri Assembly seats. There are a total of 8 seats in Varanasi, out of which the BJP holds a strong position on 6 out of them. However, this does not seem to be the case with the remaining two seats. One is Varanasi South on which BJP's Culture Minister Neelkanth Tiwari is contesting against Samajwadi Party's Kishan Dixit, head priest of Mrityunjay Mahadev. Another is Varanasi Cantt where the BJP has fielded Saurabh Srivastava opposite SP's, Pooja Yadav.
PM Modi even camped in Varanasi for two days and interacted with shopkeepers there. On the same day, he also had a brief stopover at a tea stall in Varanasi after holding a roadshow that attracted a huge crowd. He also tried his hand at 'damru' at Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, where he also offered prayers. In the run-up to the elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also addressed rallies in the BJP's strong turf in Varanasi.
In Shivpur, another minister and the BJP candidate Anil Rajbhar is contesting the polls against SP's Arvind Rajbhar. Arvind is the son of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Omprakash Rajbhar. The seat has a sizable caste population belonging to Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Rajbhar, Patel, Maurya, Yadav, Scheduled Caste, among others.