New Delhi: The sixth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly election on March 3 will decide the fate of 676 candidates including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The incumbent Chief Minister is contesting the election from the Gorakhpur constituency on a BJP ticket. The Samajwadi Party (SP), which seems to be the closest rival of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh elections (SP) has pitted Subhavati Shukla, wife of late Upendra Dutt Shukla, a former BJP leader against Yogi Adityanath. While the Bahujan Samajwadi party (BSP) and the Congress have fielded Khwaja Shamsuddin and Chetna Pandey from the assembly seat.
A five-time Member of Parliament, Yogi Adityanath will contest an assembly election for the first time. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections, the CM entered the House through the Legislative Council.
Ten districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh - Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ballia will go to the polls during the sixth phase for which voting will begin at 7 am.
Besides Yogi Adityanath some other prominent faces to be contesting the sixth phase of election are Swami Prasad Maurya of the Samajwadi Party, Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and senior Samajwadi Party leader Ram Govind Chaudhary, who is contesting from Bansdih seat.
Swami Prasad Maurya who quit the BJP before the assembly election in the state to join the SP will contest from Fazilnagar seat and will be pitted against BJP's Surendra Singh Kushwaha. BSP's Ilyas Ansari, Congress' Sunil Singh and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Harish Chandra Yadav also pose a strong challenge to Maurya.
The seventh and last phase of polling in the state will be held on March 7. Counting of votes will take place on March 10.