Lucknow : UP polls With political parties grappling in selecting candidates for the 403 assembly seats in the state, the Election Commission of India(ECI) is prepared to set the ball rolling for the 7- phase crucial assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh from Friday, it was announced on Thursday.
Termed as a semi-final before 2024 Lok Sabha polls, UP is witnessing large scale defection in all the major political parties, with two cabinet ministers of Yogi Adityanath government resigning and likely to join the Samajwadi Party soon. Several MLAs from the BJP, SP and Congress too have been joining other political parties.
Political parties are also burning the midnight oil to select candidates and the lists are expected to be out in a day or two.
On the other hand, ECI will issue notification for the first phase of polls in 58 assembly segments covering 11 districts in western UP on Friday at 1100 hours to kick start the poll process.
State Chief Electoral officer(CEO) Ajay Kumar Shukla here on Thursday said that all preparation for issuance of notification for the first phase has been completed and it will be done on Friday morning.
He said nominations in these 58 assembly seats will commence while strictly following Covid norms and guidelines issued by the ECI.
Surprisingly, this time, the ECI will start the process from Kairana in Muzaffarnagar district, which is the number 8 assembly segment of the state though every time it commenced from Behat seat in Saharanpur district which is number one. Now Behat polls will be held in the second phase.
Already over 120 companies of Central forces have reached UP to maintain law and order during the polls.
ECI has announced a 7 phase poll this time similar to the 2017 polls though the duration has been reduced by 5 days. In 2017, the poll dates were announced on January 4 and results were declared on March 11.
But this time, the polls were announced on January 8 and results would be declared on March 10.
The poll process will commence from January 14 , with issuance of notification for the first phase starting from western UP on January 14 where polling will be held on February10.
The polling dates for UP are February 10,14, 20, 23, 27, March 3 and 7. Counting of votes for all 403 seats will be held on March 10.
In the first phase polling to be held on February 10, filing of nominations will commence from January 14, last date for filing of nominations is January 21, scrutiny on January 24 and last date for withdrawal is January 27.
A total of 58 assembly segments will go to polls in the first phase of 11 districts of Shamli, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut Hapur, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Mathura, Agra and Aligarh.
In the 2017 elections, BJP won 53 of these 58 assembly segments, while SP and BSP won 2 each and RLD one.
In the second phase polling to be held on February 14, filing of nominations will commence from January 21, last date for filing of nominations is January 28, scrutiny on January 29 and last date for withdrawal is January 31.
Altogether 55 assembly segments will go to polls in the second phase covering 9 districts of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun and Shahjahanpur.
In the third phase polling to be held on February 20, filing of nominations will commence from January 25, last date for filing of nominations is February 1, scrutiny on February 2 and last date for withdrawal is February 4.
A total of 59 assembly segments will go to polls in the third phase in 16 districts which are Kasganj, Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur.
In the fourth phase polling will be held on February 23, filing of nominations will commence from January 27, last date for filing of nominations is February 3, scrutiny on February 4 and last date for withdrawal is February 7.
A total of 60 assembly segments of Awadh region will go to polls in this phase covering 9 districts including Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Lucknow, Unnao, Rae Bareli, Fatehpur and Banda.
In the fifth phase polling will be held on February 27, filing of nominations will commence from February 1, last date for filing of nominations is February 8, scrutiny on February 9 and last date for withdrawal is February 11.
A total of 60 assembly seats will go to polls in the fifth phase covering 11 districts of Shravasti, Bahraich, Barabanki, Gonda, Ayodhya, Amethi, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot and Prayagraj.
In the sixth phase polling will be held on March 3, filing of nominations will commence from February 4, last date for filing of nominations is February 11, scrutiny on February 14 and last date for withdrawal is February 14.
In the sixth phase 57 assembly segments will go to polls in 10 districts of Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Gorakhpur, Deoria and Ballia.
In the seventh and last phase polling will be held on March 7, filing of nominations will commence from February10, last date for filing of nominations is February 17, scrutiny on February 18 and last date for withdrawal is February 21.
A total of 54 assembly seats will go to polls covering 10 districts of Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Chandauli and Sonbhadra.