UP Polls: Polling moves to heart of Uttar Pradesh; to complete halfway mark today
Hindustan TimesUttar Pradesh assembly elections will pass the halfway mark when the fourth phase of the polls will be conducted in 59 constituencies of nine districts on Wednesday. The Congress 2017’s winner on the Rae Bareli assembly seat is now contesting the same seat as BJP candidate. This phase has some interesting contests lined up with spotlight on SP’s Hardoi MLA and now deputy speaker Nitin Agrawal as the BJP candidate; Ex-ED officer Rajeshwar Singh vs ex-SP minister Abhishek Singh on Lucknow’s Sarojinnagar seat; ministers Ashutosh Tandon, Brajesh Pathak on Lucknow East and Lucknow Cantt seats; first-timer SP’s Pooja Shukla on Lucknow North seat, Aditi Singh, who won Rae Bareli seat as Congress candidate in 2017 now defending the same seat as BJP candidate, SP’s Brahmin leader Manoj Pandey is contesting to stay the Unchahar MLA for the third time, and Asha Singh, the Unnao rape victim’s mother, as Congress candidate on Unnao seat. Rai also says: “The recent statement of Amit Shah on BSP and Muslim voters indicates that BJP is on shaky ground and is expecting the support of Mayawati in case it was needed after the results came in.” After Wednesday’s phase, the battle will move to largely the eastern UP region.