This phase will see 635 candidates vying for 49 seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh spread over seven districts -- Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh and Ballia. It will also see the battle of the bigwigs of UP politics.
The Azamgarh district has 10 assembly seats of which the SP had bagged 9 in the 2012 assembly elections when MSY -- "Netaji" for his followers -- used to call the shots in the party. This time, however,Netaji has not been campaigning for the party and it is up to his son and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to repeat the 2012 performance of the SP, which is now aligned with Congress.
The SP has fielded 40 candidates and Congress 9 in the sixth phase.
Focus will also be on Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adiyanath who can be banked on to play yhe religion card for all it's worth
Other prominent candidates in this phase include jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari, who is in the fray from Mau for the Bahujan Samaj Party, Ansari's son Abbas , who is contesting from the adjoining Ghosi seat in Mau district, BSP defector Swami Prasad Maurya from Padrauna (Kushinagar), former BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi from Pathardeva (Deoria), Shyam Bahadur Yadav (SP), son of former Governor Ram Naresh Yadav from Fulpur Pawai (Azamgarh), SP defectors Ambika Chowhdury and Narai Rai, who are contesting on BSP tickets from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar.
In the sixth phase, a lot will also be at stake for Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who represents Deoria in the Lok Sabha.
In the 2012 assembly polls, of the 49 seats, 27 were won by the SP, 9 by BSP, 7 by Bharatiya Janata Party, 4 by Congress and 2 by others.
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