ampaigning for the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls ended on Thursday evening. Polling will be held on May 25 from 7 am to 6 pm.
A total of 162 candidates are in the fray for the sixth phase on 14 Lok Sabha seats of Purwanchal. Among the prominent candidates are Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur, Bhojpuri actor and BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua and SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh, TMC candidate Laliteshpati Tripathi from Bhadoi and Congress candidate Ujjwal Raman Singh from the Allahabad Lok Sabha.
Along with the 14 Lok Sabha seats, the election commission will hold a by-election for the Gansadi assembly segment in the Balrampur district.
The last day of campaigning was hectic even under the severe heatwave conditions.
Varun Gandhi campaigned for his mother Maneka in Sultanpur while Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed four rallies in the constituencies going to polls in the sixth phase.
SP President Akhilesh Yadav addressed rallies in Azamgarh and Pratapgarh while BJP leaders campaigned in different areas to wind up the canvassing.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa declared the end of the campaigning in the 14 Lok Sabha and one Assembly seats on Thursday evening at 6 pm. He said there are 162 candidates in the fray, of them 146 are male and 16 are female candidates. There are seven candidates in the fray for the Gansadi assembly by-election.
Among the 162 Lok Sabha candidates, 23% have criminal cases against them while 36% are Crorepatis.
He said after the end of the election campaign, the presence of outside workers and officials of all political parties would be completely banned in these constituencies.
The constituencies that will go to polls in the sixth phase are Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkarnagar, Shravasti, Dumariaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj (SC), Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machlishahar (SC) and Bhadoi.
The CEO said that there are 2.69 crore voters in the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of the sixth phase, of which 1.42 crore are male voters and 1.27 crore are female voters. There are a total of 17,113 polling stations and 28171 polling booths in these constituencies.
Similarly, there are a total of 3.62 lakh voters in the 292-Gansadi Assembly sub-constituency, of which 1.93 lakh are male voters and 1.69 lakh are female voters.