The high decibel campaign for the 18 seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh from where 328 candidates, including BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and his challenger Aam Admi Party founder Arvind Kejriwal, are in fray, ended on Saturday ahead of the final phase of polls on May 12.
In the mother of all political battles, Kejriwal will take on Modi from the the temple city of Varanasi, which witnessed massive show of strength by both the outsiders, attracting the attention of international media.
Congress' Ajay Rai, a 'local' backed by Mokhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal (QED), also wooed voters in Varanasi as the high pitched canvassing saw allegations and counter-allegations flowing thick and fast between leaders of different hues.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, besides sticking to his traditional bastion in Mainpuri, has thrown his hat into the ring from Azamgarh too.
However, unlike Mainpuri, Azamgarh may not be a cakewalk for him as he faces a tough fight from BSP's Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali, Rastriya Ulema Council Chief Aamir Rashadi Madana and Mulayam's own former associate Ramakant Yadav, who is wooing voters with the Lotus symbol of BJP.
While Mulayam is banking on his traditional Muslim-Yadav vote bank, division of Muslim votes by Madani and Guddu Jamali could botch up his prospects and benefit Ramakant.
Over 3 crore voters, including 1.35 crore women, will exercise their franchise at 19,881 polling centres in the 18 crucial seats of eastern Uttar Pradesh and will decide the fate of 328 candidates.
The 18 seats which are going to polls on May 12 include Domariyaganj, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon, Lalganj, Ghosi, Azamgarh, Salempur, Ballia, Jaunpur, Machhlishahar, Gazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, and Robertsganj.
Political heavyweights like Minister of State for Home RPN Singh from Kushinagar, and turncoat Jagdambika Pal, who jumped from Congress to the saffron party, from Domariyaganj are also trying their luck.
The other prominent candidates include CPI's Atul Kumar Anjaan from Ghosi who is in a tight contest with controversial legislator Mokhtar Ansari, senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra from Deoria, yogi-turned politician Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur, Bhojpuri movie star Ravi Kishan from Jaunpur, and former prime minister Chandrashekhar's son, Neeraj Shekhar from Ballia.
Muscleman Dhananjay Singh, who is a sitting MP, is again in the fray from Jaunpur, but this time as an independent candidate after being expelled from BSP, while DP Yadav, whose son Vikas Yadav was the convicted murderer of Nitish Katara, is contesting from Ghazipur seat.
Among the 18 seats, Samajwadi Party had clinched 6 seats from the region, BSP 5, BJP 4 and Congress 3 in 2009. Interestingly, BSP had registered marginal loss and ended up in the second place in 12 seats.
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