UP polls: Fate of two cabinet ministers, Aditi Singh, Ex-ED Joint Director Rajeshwar, Unnao rape victim's mother to be sealed today

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) February 23 : The fate of 624 candidates including Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brajesh Pathak, sitting MLA from Rae Bareli Aditi Singh, former joint director of Enforcement Directorate Rajeshwar Singh and Unnao rape victim's mother Asha Singh will be sealed in EVMs as the polling for the fourth phase of state Assembly will be held today.
59 Assembly seats going to polls today spread across the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur.
Among the top contenders in the fourth phase of the state Assembly elections is Law Minister and BJP leader Brajesh Pathak who will test the waters from the Lucknow Cantonment seat. He is pitted against Samajwadi Party candidate and two-time Corporator Surendra Singh Gandhi. Pathak was elected to the state Assembly from the Lucknow Central seat in the 2017 polls.
Another minister in the Yogi Adityanath Cabinet-- Urban Development Minister Ashutosh Tandon is seeking re-election from the Lucknow East seat. He is contesting against Samajwadi Party's national spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria.
Another keenly watched seat in this phase is the Sarojini Nagar seat in Lucknow where the BJP has pitted former joint director of Enforcement Directorate Rajeshwar Singh against SP candidate Abhishek Mishra, who is a former IIM professor and a close aide of the former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The relevance of Congress will be tested in its bastion Rae Bareli as party MLA Aditi Singh joined the BJP before the polls. Aditi Singh is facing Congress candidate Manish Chauhan and Samajwadi Party's R P Yadav. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha.
Lakhimpur Kheri, which hogged the national limelight after eight people including four farmers were killed after being mowed down by a vehicle during last year, will also vote today. BJP leader and Union Minister of State Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish Mishra is accused in the case.
The Lakhimpur seat is witnessing a multi-cornered fight. BJP's Yogesh Verma is seeking re-election from the Lakhimpur seat. He is up against Utkarsh Verma Madhur of the SP, Mohan Bajpai of the BSP, Dr Ravi Shankar Trivedi of the Congress party, Usman Siddiqui of the AIMIM, and Khushi Kinnar from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The prestige of the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni will also be at stake in the Lakhimpur Kheri constituency. He's a local MP, besides having been at the center of controversy after his son was named in the FIR in the incident leading to the deaths of the farmers.
Security has been tightened in Lakhimpur Kheri for the fourth phase of polling. "104 companies of CAPF, 10,000 Civil Police personnel and Home Guards have been deployed on the Nepal Border. The borders have been sealed," Sanjeev Suman, Superintendent of Police of Kheri said.
The focus will also be on Unnao where the Congress party has fielded the Unnao rape victim's mother to wrest the seat from BJP's Pankaj Gupta. Former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who represented the Bangermau seat in Unnao district, was convicted and jailed for life for the rape in 2019.
The Unnao rape case came into the limelight in 2017 when the victim tried to kill herself outside the residence of Yogi Adityanath after her father was beaten up allegedly by Sengar's brother and later succumbed to the injuries.
The state is witnessing a multi-cornered contest with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress as principal contenders.
Elections in Uttar Pradesh are being held in seven phases and will conclude on March 7. Voting for the remaining three phases will take place on February 27, March 3, and 7. Besides UP, polling for assembly elections in Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab has been concluded. Manipur will go to the polls in two phases- on February 28 and March 5.
The counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur will take place on March 10.