UP elections Phase 1: Polling begins for 58 Assembly seats

LIVE UPDATESPeople form queue at a public inter college in Kairana as voting for first phase begins in Uttar PradeshPeople form queues at booth number 299 at Public Inter College in Kairana as voting for the first phase of UttarPradeshElections begins pictwittercomGYEBLkXypHmdash ANI UPUttarakhand ANINewsUP February 10 2022The battle for Uttar Pradesh began on Thursday with polling at 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the statePolling started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm officials of the state election commission said hereCampaigning in the constituencies going to vote in the first round of the sevenphase election in the politically crucial state ended on Tuesday eveningMinisters whose fate would be decided in the first phase include Shrikant Sharma Suresh Rana Sandeep Singh Kapil Dev Agarwal Atul Garg and Chowdhury Lakshmi NarainAs many as 623 candidates including 73 women are in the fray in the first phase and around 228 core voters including 124 crore men and 104 crore women are eligible to caste their francise election officials saidThe canvassing for the first phase remained confined to the virtual medium due to a ban on road shows and physical rallies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemicLeading the campaign for the BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for a doubleengine government for fastpaced development while attacking the Samajwadi PartyRashtriya Lok Dal SPRLD combineWhile Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tried to put the spotlight back on alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana before 2017 SP president Akhilesh Yadav claimed that people have made up their mind to vote out the BJP from powerThe SPRLD alliance has centred their electioneering on farmers issues and has attacked Adityanath over poll promisesBSP chief Mayawati who started campaigning late reminded people of her governments track record on law and order in the pastThe Congress under the leadership of its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has generated interest as seen in doortodoor campaignsThe districts where the elections will be held are Shamli Hapur Gautam Buddh Nagar Muzaffarnagar Meerut Baghpat Ghaziabad Bulandshahr Aligarh Mathura and AgraThe first phase will cover the Jatdominated belt of western UP from where farmers had participated actively in the stir against the Centres three farm laws in the national capitalIn 2017 the BJP bagged 53 of the 58 seats while the SP and the BSP had got two seats each One seat had gone to the RLDThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever