Uttar Pradesh poll juggernaut halts after gruelling 2 months

Final 7th phase polling concluded this evening

Last Updated : Mar 08 2017 | 7:22 PM IST

The over two-month long poll juggernaut in Uttar Pradesh, a state that virtually holds the key to power at the Centre, came to end this evening following the conclusion of voting in the seventh and last phase.

The gruelling election process, which started to roll after Election Commission (EC) on January 4, 2017, announced the polling schedule for the five election-bound states -- UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

Due to its large geography, population and the highest number of assembly seats at 403, the UP polling was scheduled across seven phases, starting from western UP region and culminating with eastern UP districts, bordering Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

The polling dates in UP fell on February 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, March 4 and 8.

However, one assembly segment in Ambedkarnagar district would witness polling tomorrow, since the process was postponed over the death of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate.

2017 election was marked with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi crisscrossing UP holding about 2 dozen rallies, roadshows and public meetings, a first for any PM.

Not to be left behind, other prominent political leaders viz. Samajwadi Party (SP) president and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati also addressed dozens of rallies to consolidate their core vote bank.

Meanwhile, the UP polling percentage stood at about 60 percent. Almost 4,900 candidates had tried their luck in UP poll as party nominees or as independents.

Interestingly, the number of candidates in 2017 UP election fell by almost 30 percent compared to 2012. Against over 6,800 candidates fighting 2012 poll, the corresponding contestants' number dropped significantly to about 4,900 this year.

The number of contestants fell drastically even if we factor in the pre-poll alliances of SP-Congress and BJP-Apna Dal in UP. In 2012 UP poll, there had been a jump of over 52 percent in the number of candidates compared to 2007, when 4,487 contested.

Demonetisation, which was announced on November 8 by Modi, as a radical step against black money, unaccounted cash transactions and tax evasion, had sucked out almost 85 percent of liquidity from the market. The decision had squeezed cash availability across the country and thus it was widely expected that it would result in lower number of contestants this time round.

In this election, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had kept away from canvassing, although the latter addressed three public meetings in favour of his younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav and a party candidate in Jaunpur district.

Meanwhile, counting of votes would occur on March 11 for all the five states simultaneously, thus paving way for the swearing in of the respective new dispensation.

UP poll scenario had been quite fluid and there was no clarity as to which party was leading. Yet, the election shaped up as 'Modi versus entire opposition'.