162 constituencies in 7 phases across 3 states in 44 days

On high-stake 80 seats, Varanasi, Gorakhpur go to polls in last phase

- NAMITA BMAP AI, PRANAB MONDAL, RAMASHANKAR 

WITH the notification for Lok Sabha elections issued by the Election Commission on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh, politically the biggest state of the country, will witness voting across all seven phases starting from April 19 and ending on June 1.

UP sends 80 members, including the Prime Minister, to the lower house of 80 S Parliament. Vara- 62 02nasi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a candidate, and Gorakhpur, conBJP sidered the stronghold of CM BSP+S Yogi Adityanath, will vote in the seventh and last phase on June 1.

Adityanath had represented Gorakhpur in Lok Sabha from 1998 till 2014, and the seat is now represented by Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan.

While the BJP has repeated Ravi Kishan in Gorakhpur, the Samajwadi Party has fielded model Kajal Nishad.

State capital Lucknow, once the stronghold of former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now represented by defence minister Rajnath Singh, will vote in the fifth phase, along with Rae Bareli and Amethi, the Gandhi family bastions, on May 20.

Ayodhya and the four seats of Bundelkhand region will also go to polls in the fifth phase. Voting in the Samajwadi Party's EATS strongholds will 1501 be held in the third and fourth phases Mainpuri, Etah and Firozabad under Agra division in the third on May 7, and Etawah and Kannauj in AD(s) • Cong the fourth on May 13.