New Delhi: Campaigning will come to a close in 49 Assembly seats in seven districts of eastern UP going to polls in the sixth phase on 4 March, with Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency in focus.

Eyes will also be on Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha constituency of firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yogi Adityanath, and Mau, where jailed gangster-turned-MLA Mukhtar Ansari is in the fray. This phase, the penultimate of the 7-phase exercise, will also cover certain districts bordering Nepal.

Besides Adityanath, the prestige of Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who represents Deoria in the Lok Sabha, will also be at stake. While Mukhtar is contesting from Mau, his son Abbas is in fray from adjoining Ghosi seat in Mau district.

Here are the latest updates and developments ahead of the sixth phase of voting on 4 March in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections:

■ Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a public rally in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh. Here are the highlights of his speech:

— We will waive farmers’ loan in our first cabinet meeting after the results of UP polls on March 11: PM Modi.

— We will clear all bakaya (due) amount of sugarcane farmers within 120 days, says PM Modi. (CNN-News18)

— Now debate is on whether BJP will get two-thirds or three-fourths majority in UP Assembly polls. (PTI)

— What happened to Akhilesh Yadav’s promise to crack the whip on the corrupt who flourished during Mayawati’s tenure, asks PM. (PTI)

— SP, BSP have tacit understanding; beware of ‘daagi’ (tainted) and ‘baagi’ (rebels) in this elections: PM. (PTI)

■ Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati is addressing a public rally in Sonbhadra. Here are the main highlights from her speech:

— We are going to defeat Guru (Narendra Modi), Chela (Amit Shah), SP ka Bauua (kid) Akhilesh Yadav in this state election. There will be a complete rout of BJP and company. (CNN-News18)

— If BJP will come to power they will abolish dalit quota in Uttar Pradesh. I am getting this information from my reliable sources. I would like to warn you to that BJP is against quota system for dalits in the state. (CNN-News18)

— Muslims should vote for BSP and not Samajwadi Party, Mayawati

■ Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now addressing an election rally in Maharajganj. Main highlights of his speech are:

— UP voters giving vent to their anger over 15 years of loot in the state. UP electorate has ensured BJP’s victory in first five phases; now they will give us surplus votes as gift and bonus in the remaining two phases. (PTI)

— Modi mocks Rahul Gandhi over his potato factory comment, says he does not even know that there is no coconut juice, it is coconut water. (PTI)

— On the one hand are those (critics of note ban) who talk of what people at Harvard say and on the other hand is a poor man’s son who through his hard work is trying to improve the economy.

— One party made Uttar Pradesh ‘behal’, another spoke of UP becoming ‘behal’; later both joined hands, says Modi. (PTI)

— The Uttar Pradesh government failed to provide basic amenities including house to the people. We are committed to provide shelters to all and we will achieve this target by 2022. (@BJP4India)

— It is our dream to spread peace, unity and harmony everywhere. (@BJP4India)

— Even the website of the Akhilesh government says that Uttar Pradesh’s condition is worse than the Sahara desert.

■ Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has sought to dispel the perception that the alliance with the Congress is not working at the ground level. In an interview to CNN-News18, Akhilesh said that the alliance is working for both the parties.

■ In the 2012 assembly polls, of the 49 seats, 27 were won by the SP, nine by BSP, seven by BJP, four by Congress and two by others. There will be 17,926 polling booths in this phase.

■ The highest number of candidates are in Gorakhpur (23) and the lowest of seven candidates are in Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau district.

■ Around 1.72 crore voters, including 94.60 lakh male and 77.84 lakh female voters, are eligible to decide the fate of 635 candidates.

Also read | Has identity politics and polarization trumped development to claim centre stage in the ongoing election campaign in Uttar Pradesh?

■ The districts going to polls in the sixth phase are Mau, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Azamgarh and Ballia. Azamgarh has 10 assembly seats, of which SP had won nine in 2012, but this time Mulayam has not addressed a single meeting in his parliamentary constituency.

Also read | Modi’s adopted village in Varanasi rues no follow-up on development works

■ Prominent candidates in this phase include Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) turncoat 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 turncoats Ambika Chowhdury and Narai Rai, who are contesting on BSP ticket from Fefna (Ballia) and Ballia Sadar.

■ A key question: Will Mayawati-led BSP turn out to be the dark horse of the ongoing election to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly?

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