Lok Sabha elections 2024: Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath attend Ganga Aarti in Varanasi

Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath. File pic

Union Home Minister Amit Shah attended the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi on Saturday evening along with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the BJP's state unit president Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, reported the PTI.

Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath arrived at the Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport on Saturday evening.

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According to the news agency, other senior leaders of the party also attended the event. A drone show displaying the development works carried out in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency was also organised on the occasion.

According to BJP sources, after attending the Ganga Aarti, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Chaudhary held a meeting with the members of the party's Central Election Steering Committee, public representatives and officials to take stock of the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's roadshow and nomination filing in the constituency on May 13 in Varanasi, the news agency reported.

UP gears up for fourth phase of polls in 13 constituencies

Voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh covering 13 parliamentary constituencies will take place on Monday, with all eyes on the prestigious Kannauj seat from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav is seeking a re-election.

Another prominent candidate in the fray in this round is Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni, who is contesting from Kheri.

Voting will take place in Shahjahanpur (SC), Kheri, Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Hardoi (SC), Misrikh (SC), Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kannauj, Kanpur, Akbarpur and Bahraich (SC).

A total of 130 candidates are in the poll fray in this phase.

Among the 13 poll-bound constituencies, Kannauj will see a contest between the SP chief and sitting BJP MP Subrat Pathak, while in Unnao, incumbent BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj (Swami Sachidanand Hari Sakshi) is pitted against SP's Annu Tandon (a former Lok Sabha MP from Unnao).

Tandon had contested against Sakshi Maharaj as a Congress candidate in 2014 and 2019, but had lost on both occasions. She had won the Unnao Lok Sabha seat in 2009 on a Congress ticket.

Of the 13 parliamentary constituencies going to polls in the fourth phase, the BJP has reposed its faith in 11 sitting MPs by giving them tickets, while it has fielded new candidates Ramesh Awasthi from Kanpur and Anand Kumar from the Bahraich-SC seat.

In the INDIA bloc, the SP has fielded candidates from 11 Lok Sabha seats in this phase, while on two seats -- Kanpur (Alok Misra) and Sitapur (Rakesh Rathor) -- candidates of the Congress are in the fray.

Four BJP candidates --- Union minister Teni (Kheri), Rekha Verma (Dhaurahra), Mukesh Rajput (Farrukhabad) and Devendra Singh alias Bhole (Akbarpur) -- are eyeing a hat trick, while Rajesh Verma is eyeing a fifth term from Sitapur.

Ashok Kumar Rawat and Ram Shankar Katheria are eyeing a fourth term from Misrikh (SC) and Etawah (SC) respectively. Sitting MP from Hardoi (SC) Jai Prakash and incumbent from Unnao Sakshi Maharaj are eyeing a sixth term in the Lok Sabha.

Over 2.46 crore voters will be eligible to exercise their voting rights in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Like other poll phases, campaigning for the fourth phase witnessed attacks and counter-attacks by leaders of various political parties against each other.

Slamming the Congress and INDIA bloc, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dhaurahra on May 5 had said that Muslims now understand that the Congress and INDIA bloc are using them as pawns, asserting that the community is distancing itself from them after seeing the development carried out by the BJP.

(with PTI inputs)