The first phase of voting has begun on Saturday morning in Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 2.6 crore people are there in 73 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh who are eligible to vote, according to the litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's in his three-year rule.
839 candidates will be contesting in the election in which main contenders are BJP, BSP, allies Congress and Samajwadi party, RLD as well independents. There are total 15 districts where 26,823 polling stations have been set up.
Among the electorate, there are 1.17 crore women and 1,508 belonging to third gender category. The maximum number 26 candidates belong from Agra South. The least number of aspirants are in Hastinapur with just 6 in number.
Prominent contestants include Pankaj Singh (Noida seat) who is the son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura) against him BJP spokesman Srikant Sharma is contesting, Mriganka Singh (Kairana), daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh and controversial BJP MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana - Sardhan and Thanabhawan respectively.
Former BJP state president Lakshmikant Bajpai (Meerut), RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son-in-law Rahul Singh (SP) from Sikandarabad, and Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh from Atrauli are some others contesting.
Elaborate security has been made in all districts. In this regard, 6,000 paramilitary personnel have been deployed in all polling centres.
The other six polling phases will be held on February 15, 19, 23 and 27 and on March 4 and 8. Counting will be take place on March 11.
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BY M. DIVYA SRI
