It’s Election Day in Uttar Pradesh, the last of a seven-phase election in the state. There are 54 seats up for a vote.
All eyes are on Varanasi, the Prime Minister’s hometown.
READ MORE: Today is the seventh phase of UP polls, and several political heavyweights are running.
Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet on this story.
1. Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Sonbhadra, and nine other districts will vote today for 54 seats.
2. The eight seats in Varanasi and its neighbouring districts are, Banaras City South, Banaras City North, Shivpur, Sewapuri, Cantonment, Ajgara, Pindra and Rohaniya, are all up for election.
3. People in this area have always been pleased with the BJP and its allies. The BJP had won six seats. This means that out of the two remaining seats, one went to Anupriya Patel’s party, and the other went to Om Prakash Rajbhar’s party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
4. Many of these seats are in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi. There will be a lot of voting going on in Mirzapur and Jaunpur, which are close to where the BJP won last time.
5. There are more than 3 million Muslims in Varanasi, over 3.25 million Vaisyas and over 1.5 million Yadavs, Thakurs, Dalits, and other OBC castes and 70,000 other OBC castes.
6. On this day, the smaller allies on both sides are expected to win. Akhilesh Yadav’s Apna Dal (K), Rajbhar’s SBSP, the BJP’s Apna Dal and the NISHAD party are expected winners.
7. It looks like Akhilesh Yadav has chosen four SP candidates to run in Varanasi, but he has left four seats open for other parties. Apna Dal (Kamerwadi) runs by Anupriya’s mother, Krishna Patel, and two chairs for Rajbhar’s SBSP.
8. The BJP has chosen seven seats and left the Rohania seat for the Apna Dal, which is led by Union minister Anupriya Patel (S).
9. The election will also be a test for the leader of the Samajwadi Party because the seats in his parliamentary district, Azamgarh, will also be up for election. The area stayed with the SP even though the BJP won the place in 2017. All 10 seats were held by one party. The party had won five of the ten seats in that district.
10. People in Uttar Pradesh and four other states will vote on March 10.
