People show their inked fingers after casting votes at a polling station. Image forrepresentation only.
Crdit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: Voting for the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election, which will seal the fate of several high-profile candidates, including former Union minister Maneka Gandhi, began on Saturday in 14 seats of Uttar Pradesh.
The bypoll for the Gainsari assembly seat in Balrampur is also being held.
Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said 162 candidates, 146 men and 16 women, are in the fray from the parliamentary seats while seven hopefuls are contesting in Gainsari.
Voting began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm.
Campaigning for the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election ended at 6 pm on Thursday.
The Lok Sabha seats going to the polls in this phase are Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi.
In Sultanpur, BJP candidate Gandhi is seeking her ninth term as an MP. The former Union minister is up against the Samajwadi Party's Ram Bhual Nishad and the Bahujan Samaj Party's Uday Raj Verma.
From Allahabad, former West Bengal governor Kesari Nath Tripathi's son Neeraj Tripathi of the BJP will take on the Congress' Ujjwal Raman Singh.
In Azamgarh, incumbent MP Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' is hoping to retain the seat for the BJP against the SP's Dharmendra Yadav. Yadav lost to Nirahua in the 2022 bypoll. The seat was won by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in the 2019 election.
Jaunpur will witness former Maharashtra minister Kripashankar Singh of the BJP take on SP candidate Babu Singh Khushwaha and the incumbent MP Shyam Singh Yadav of the BSP.
In Bhadohi, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi of the Trinamool Congress is in the fray, while the BJP's Ritesh Pandey is taking on former minister Lalji Verma of the Samajwadi Party in Ambedkar Nagar.
In Sant Kabir Nagar, the electoral battle pits the BJP's sitting MP Praveen Nishad against the Samajwadi Party's Laxmikant alias Pappu Nishad.
At 80, Uttar Pradesh sends the highest number of MPs to the Lok Sabha.
So far, voting has been held on 53 seats in the first five phases. The remaining 13 seats will vote in the seventh phase on June 1. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.