Assembly elections 2022 highlights:

Uttar Pradesh’s 61 assembly seats across 12 districts will go to the polls in the fifth phase assembly elections on February 27. Campaigning for this round of polls ended on Friday evening.

A total of 692 candidates are in the fray for the fifth phase of polling and their fate will be decided by 2.24 crore voters. The districts going to the polls on Sunday include Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabaki, Bahraich, Shravasti and Gonda. Amethi and Raebareli, once considered as Congress bastions, Ayodhya, the epicentre of movement for the construction of Lord Ram temple too go to the polls on Sunday.

Political parties continued to campaign for the sixth phase of elections. At a rally, in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, he was confident BJP will cross the mark of 300 seats once again.

Here are the highlights from the campaign trail:

Send Adityanath to his mutt: Mayawati to voters

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday asked voters to send UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to his mutt, alleging that he nurses grudge against the Muslims and ignored the poor due to his "casteist narrow-mindedness". "Send Yogiji back to his mutt, to his family. He had made big promises but the implementation was negligible. Due to his casteist narrow-mindedness, he ignored the development of the SC/ST community and extremely backward people," the former UP CM alleged. "He didn't focus on the development of the Muslim community and owing to a feeling of enmity towards the Muslims, he made efforts to destroy them after framing them in fake cases," Mayawati alleged addressing a rally here.

BSP MP claims govt not giving satisfactory reply on law on MSP

BSP Lok Sabha member Danish Ali on Saturday accused the central government of failing to give a "satisfactory answer" to his demand for making a law on Minimum Support Price in the Winter Session of Parliament. He also claimed that Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is "simply trying to avoid the real issue by just explaining the process of MSP".

The Lower House member from Uttar Pradesh, where elections are underway, shared a letter from Tomar on Twitter to drive home his point. Ali had raised the issue of a legislation on MSP during the Zero Hour on December 1 last year. Responding to the issue, the Union minister wrote to the BSP MP on February 21.

Dispersal of polling material and team for 55/37 Senvom and 56 Thanlon of Churachandpur District: CEO, Manipur

Manipur Assembly elections will take place in two phases on February 28 and March 5. pic.twitter.com/nRUHPeEvkJ— ANI (@ANI) February 26, 2022

People will bring SP to power: SP chief Akhilesh Yadav

"Baba CM has booked his ticket from Lucknow to Gorakhpur on March 11. Petrol and diesel prices are increasing continuously. They (BJP) want to take money from poor and give it to their rich businessmen friends. People will bring SP to power," SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said at a rally in UP's Balrampur.

Cong writes to EC, seeks action against KNO after its diktat supporting BJP

The Congress on Saturday appealed to the Election Commission to immediately intervene and take urgent action after the banned Kuki National Organisation issued a statement supporting the BJP and for threatening voters. The Congress, in a letter, to the EC said this "diabolic" statement is a clear violation of the model code and strict action must to taken to ensure free and fair elections.

The statement issued by the president of the banned Kuki National Organisation on February 25, 2022, is a direct and clear threat to the conduct of free and fair elections in the state of Manipur, the Congress memorandum to EC said. It blatantly intimidates people to vote for the BJP holding out dire consequences to those who will not follow its instructions. This statement has been issued with the full knowledge and connivance of the Union home minister and the chief minister of Manipur, the Congress alleged in its memorandum.

Uttarakhand BJP asks Cong to apologise over 'fake' video

The BJP Saturday demanded from the Congress a public apology for making viral a "fake" video purportedly showing tampering of postal ballots. The video allegedly showed a man wearing a military uniform tampering with the postal ballots.

"The Kumaon regiment in an official reply to the Election Commission has said that the video is not from any of the army units in Pithoragarh district," Pradesh BJP media in-charge Manveer Chauhan said in a statement here. The reply of the Kumaon regiment to the EC makes it clear that the Congress was insulting the armed forces by saying that the video was of some army unit, he said. Congress candidate from Didihat in Pithoragarh district had lodged a complaint with the police earlier suspecting that the video was of an army unit located in the constituency.

BJP Chief JP Nadda addresses rally in UP's Kushinagar

"Did goonism not end after Yogi became CM? Have the mafias not put behind bars?...We have decided that anti-terrorisms squad commandos will be constituted in Bahraich, Rampur, Meerut, Kanpur, Deogarh," BJP chief JP Nadda said at a rally in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar

Once again BJP will cross the mark of 300 seats: UP CM Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh | After 4 phases of polling, I can say this with confidence that there's a wave in favour of the BJP and it will get an absolute majority. Once again BJP will cross the mark of 300 seats: UP CM Yogi Adityanath at a rally in Ballia#UttarPradeshElections2022 pic.twitter.com/0j4lwOylVP

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 26, 2022

(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)

First Published:Feb 26, 2022 3:34 PM IST