Campaign ends for last lap of UP polls

Lucknow: Campaigning for the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections covering 60 seats spread over 10 northwestern districts, popularly known as Rohilkhand region, came to an end today. The districts where polling would be held on Saturday are Bijnore, Moradabad, Bheem Nagar, Rampur, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Badaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Lakhimpur Kheri, joint Chief Electoral Officer Anita Meshram said. [caption id=“attachment_231095” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Campaigning for the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections came to an end today. AFP”]  [/caption] She said 1.82 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise at over 18,000 polling centres. A total of 962 candidates are in the fray in this phase. Besides, SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan, who is in fray from Rampur, party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh have extensively campaigned in the area. In course of their electioneering, Rashtriya Lok Manch leader Amar Singh and local Rampur MP Jaya Prada asked the voters to ensure Khan’s defeat in his home district. As BJP considers the Rohilkhand region as crucial, its top leaders LK Advani, Rajnath Singh and Maneka Gandhi campaigned extensively. Congress star campaigner Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh also wooed the voters on the development plank. PTI