Phase 3 of polling concluded in Uttar Pradesh at 6 pm on Sunday, February 20. The final voter turnout was reported at 60.31%. The voting for the assembly elections took place across 16 districts, consisting of 59 constituencies, with voting starting at 7 am. A total of 627 contestants were in the fray in the polling. It must be noted that all campaigning had stopped two days prior, on February 18, with all the parties making one last effort to woo the voters in their favour. Here are some of the exciting polling events that took place:
In a roadshow in Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow, incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that UP, this time is an 80/20 battle, where the 80% who support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will prevail against the 20% who don’t. According to him, the remaining seats will be shared between the Samajwadi Party(SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress. Speaking on his party’s promises in the state, he said, “If the double engine government comes to power again, then all the women older than 60 years of age will be given free access to travel in state corporation buses”.
BSP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused Yogi Adityanath of adding hindrance to the law and order situation by changing the number of the Police to 112 from 100. He addressed Yogi as “Bulldozer Baba” and reportedly said that he had made the process of dispute resolution much harder doing this. The CM of Maharashtra and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray also lashed out at the BJP, saying that his party’s version of Hindutva doesn’t teach him wrong politics. He said that some people only work for their agendas, even at the country’s expense, and he or his party does not intend on doing that. Instead, he emphasised bringing the country on the right path while asserting who the country’s Prime Minister of the country can be focused on later, and the priority must be given to the country itself.
In Hardoi, Prime Minister Modi hit out against ‘Parivarvadis’, indicating the parties that emphasised their welfare and their families alone. His indication was towards the SP and the Congress, as he claimed that these parties did not allow him to work for the state until 2017, despite him being an MP. He also accused them of spreading venom in the name of caste and claimed that the BJP is “for poor, farmer and youth”.
The numbers
Five of the sixteen districts that voted are in the Bundelkhand region, considered poor. Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Mahoba are the three impoverished districts. However, they are still not as poor by asset position of their population as Kannauj and Kanpur Dehat in Doab.
BJP has been the dominant party in these elections since 2014. In 2014 and 2019, it won 78% of the seats in this phase and 83% in the 2017 state assembly elections. On the other hand, the SP has won almost all the remaining seats. The results will be declared on March 10.
