Voting for the second phase of UP civic body elections across 25 districts, including in PM Modi's constituency Varanasi, began on Sunday morning amid tight security
Voting for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh civic body polls across 25 districts, including in Varanasi from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member of the Lok Sabha, began on Sunday morning amid tight security.
As many as 1.29 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the local body elections, campaigning for which ended on Friday.
Besides Varanasi, the districts going to polls in the second phase are Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budhnagar, Amroha, Rampur, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Lalitpur, Banda, Allahabad, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Ambedkarnagar, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Sant Kabirnagar, Deoria, Ballia and Bhadohi.
52.59 per cent voting was recorded in the first phase on November 22 which covered 24 districts, according to the State Election Commission. In 2012, the polling percentage in these districts was 46.1. Mayoral polls were also held for five municipal corporations—Agra, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur and Meerut.
Polling for the third and final phase covering 26 districts will take place on November 29. Counting of votes for all the three phases will be on December 1 and results will be declared the same day.
The first major election after the BJP was voted to power with massive majority in March, the civic polls in UP will test the popularity of Adityanath.
While the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have left the campaigning to second-rank leaders, the Congress has engaged senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar and MP Pramod Tewari to address election meetings in selected cities of the state.
Unlike other parties, the BJP is taking the civic polls seriously and besides the chief minister himself and his two deputies, senior party leaders are extensively campaigning in the state.
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