The fate of five Ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, will be locked on Friday, as 57 constituencies spread over ten districts of Purvanchal are set to exercise their franchise in the penultimate phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
This phase also spotlights the deep criminal-politician nexus in the region as 37 out of the 57 seats fall under the red alert zone — polling areas where more than three candidates have criminal cases registered against them.
According to a report by Uttar Pradesh Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Rights, which analysed affidavits of 670 out of 676 candidates in the fray in the sixth phase, 182 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Samajwadi Party’s (SP) candidates top the list, followed by the BJP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
