Uttar Pradesh election: 61 seats in 12 districts go to polls today

Polling to decide the fate of 693 candidates in the fray for Uttar Pradesh assembly’s 61 fifth-phase seats will take place on Sunday. With the completion of this round, Uttar Pradesh will have voted on 292 of the total 403 assembly seats. The last two phases of the elections will be held on March 3 and March 7. Sunday’s polling is spread over 12 districts -- Amethi, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Ayodhaya, Baharaich, Shrawasti and Gonda. In the 2017 polls, BJP had secured 47 out of the 61 seats while its partner, Apna Dal (Sonelal), had bagged three.

Uttar Pradesh key contests:

Sirathu:
Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya vs SP’s Pallavi Patel (sister of Union minister Anupriya Patel


Allahabad West
Sitting MLA and cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh vs SP’s Richa Singh vs BSP’s Gulam Qadir

Patti
Sitting MLA and cabinet minister Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh vs SP’s Ram Singh

Allahabad South
Sitting MLA and cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ vs SP’s Raish Chandra Shukla vs BSP’s Devendra Mishra Nagraha

Mankapur
Sitting MLA and cabinet minister Ramapati Shastri vs SP’s Ramesh Chandra (fought on BSP ticket in 2017)

Kunda
Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya (Jansatta Dal) vs old aide Gulshan Yadav (SP) vs BJP’s Sindhuja Mishra Senani

Pratapgarh
Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Krishna Patel (mother of Union minister Anupriya Patel) vs BJP’s Rajendra Kumar vs BSP’s Ashutosh Tripathi

Rampur Khas
Congress legislative party leader Aradhana Mishra (Mona) vs BJP’s Nagesh Pratap Singh Urf Chhote Sarkar vs BSP’s Bankelal Patel