As the last and final phase of the over one-month long Lok Sabha election campaigning came to an end at 6 pm on Saturday, all eyes are now on the 41 seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal where votes will be cast on May 12. The 9-phase elections started on April 7 and will end with the electorate sealing the fate of the candidates in the last phase on May 12. Six seats in Bihar, 18 in Uttar Pradesh and seventeen in West Bengal will go to vote on May 12.
One of most sought after seat in the final phase of elections has been the Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh where Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Congress's Ajai Rai are involved in a tough, no-holds barred three cornered battle.
Making a last ditch effort, stalwarts from all major political parties visited the city and held roadshows to reach out to the people. On Saturday, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi held a roadshow in Varanasi drumming up votes for party leader Ajai Rai.
Samajwadi Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, too, held a roadshow in the city putting in all his efforts to give support his candidate Kailash Chaurasia and to give a tough fight to the stalwarts in the star constituency.
While Modi was denied the permission to hold a rally in Varanasi citing security reasons, he too, held a roadshow as a protest against the 'bias' of the Election Commission on Thursday. Kejriwal, who has been camping in the city for the past one month also held a roadshow to urge the voters to not only vote for him but to vote against 'elitist' politics by political parties.
In West Bengal, where 17 constituencies will be going to the poll on May 12, the last phase is crucial as the ruling Trinamool Congress will try to retain the 14 seats it had won in 2009 and the Left Front will try to wrest at least some.
Comments
0 comment