Lucknow. Under the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022, an average of 9.45 per cent polling was recorded till 9 am on Monday for 55 assembly seats in nine districts. In the second phase, voting is going on for 55 assembly seats in nine districts of the state namely Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Badaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur.
According to the information received from the Election Commission office, the voting work for the second phase of elections started at seven in the morning under the COVID protocol, which will continue till six in the evening. On an average, 9.45 per cent votes were cast till 9 am. According to the Election Commission, the average polling percentage in the polling districts – Saharanpur (9.77 percent), Bijnor (10.01 percent), Moradabad (10.03 percent), Sambhal (10.78 percent), Rampur (8.37 percent), Amroha (10.83 percent), Budaun (9.14 per cent), Bareilly (8.36 per cent) and Shahjahanpur (9.18 per cent).
A total of 586 candidates are in the fray in the second phase. Among them, State Finance Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna (Shahjahanpur Sadar), Minister of State for Jal Shakti Baldev Singh Aulakh (Bilaspur), Minister of State for Urban Development Mahesh Chandra Gupta (Badaun), Minister of State for Secondary Education Gulab Devi (Chandausi), Minister of State for AYUSH and now Samajwadi Party’s (SP) candidate Dharam Singh Saini (Nakur), senior SP leader Azam Khan (Rampur Sadar) and his son Abdullah Azam (Swar) are prominent. The areas where polling is being held in the second phase have a high Muslim population and are considered to be a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
However, in the last assembly elections held in the year 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 38 of these 55 seats, while the SP got 15 and the Congress two. Congress and SP had fought the last assembly elections together. Of the 15 seats the SP got, Muslim candidates won 10. All the political parties have put their full emphasis in the campaign for the second phase of elections. During the campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mainly targeted the main opposition party SP and called the BJP government necessary to keep the state riot free.
Modi also raised the issue of triple talaq in Saharanpur and claimed that his government has freed Muslim sisters from the clutches of triple talaq. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also held public meetings at various places including Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Badaun and attacked the opposition parties fiercely. On the other hand, SP President Akhilesh Yadav took charge of his party’s campaign. He sought votes in Rampur in favor of his party’s senior leader Azam Khan, who has been in jail for nearly two years in more than 100 cases and said that Azam, who built a university, was put in jail and farmers in Tikonia in Lakhimpur Kheri. The son of the Union Minister of State for Home, who trampled under his jeep, was granted bail.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati targeted SP, BJP and Congress during her election campaign. He alleged that the SP government ended the Jat-Muslim brotherhood in western Uttar Pradesh. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned door-to-door in several assembly constituencies of different districts undergoing the second phase of polling. Voting was held in the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections on February 10. The election results will come on March 10.