UP Elections 2022: In the first phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, voting for 58 assembly seats in 11 districts of the state began at 7 am on Thursday. According to the information received from the Election Commission office, the voting work for the first phase of elections started at seven in the morning under the COVID protocol, which will continue till six in the evening.
Meanwhile, the UP government has declared a public holiday in all the 11 polling districts. According to the order, all educational institutions and government offices will remain closed on the day of polling. In the first phase, polling is being held in Shamli, Hapur, Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra districts.
Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer BD Ram Tiwari told news agency ANI that all 11 districts of western Uttar Pradesh will observe a holiday today so that citizens can exercise their right to vote. Tiwari said that in the absence of voter ID card, vote can be cast using 12 options including Aadhar card, MNREGA job card, PAN card and driving license.
The first phase of polling is being held in Jat dominated area
The first phase of elections is being held in a Jat dominated area. In this phase, the political fate of a total of 623 candidates including state government ministers Shrikant Sharma, Suresh Rana, Sandeep Singh, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Atul Garg and Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan will be decided. These include 73 women candidates.
Strong preparation of election commission
UP Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said that the Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements and security arrangements to conduct the elections in a fair, safe and peaceful manner. In view of COVID-19, adequate quantity of thermal scanner, sanitizer, gloves, face mask, face shield, PPE kit, soap, water have been arranged at the polling stations.
He said that there are 2.28 crore eligible voters in the first phase of polling. Of these, 1.24 crore are male, 1.04 crore female and 1448 are transgender voters. 48 General Observers and eight Police Observers have been deployed to keep a watchful eye on the polling. Apart from this, 2175 Sector Magistrates, 284 Zonal Magistrates, 368 Static Magistrates and 2718 Micro Observers have also been deployed.
In the last assembly elections held in the year 2017, BJP had won 53 out of 58 seats in the first phase while Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party got two seats each. Apart from this, a candidate of Rashtriya Lok Dal also won.
Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases starting from today. The second phase will be on February 14, the third phase on February 20, the fourth phase on February 23, the fifth phase on February 27, the sixth phase on March 3 and the last phase on March 7. Whereas the counting of votes in 403 assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh will be held on March 10.
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