Lucknow, May 4 (). Voting began in 37 districts on Thursday in the first phase of the municipal elections in Uttar Pradesh. In this phase, the fate of 44,226 candidates who contested for a total of 7,592 posts will be sealed in EVMs and ballot boxes.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath exercised his franchise at Gorakhnath Girls Primary School in Gorakhpur.
In the first phase, elections are being held for 10 Municipal Corporations, 104 Municipal Councils and 276 Nagar Panchayats in 37 districts of nine divisions of the state. Around 2.40 crore voters will decide the fate of over 44,000 candidates for 7,593 posts.
According to the information received from the Election Commission, videography of voting is being done at all the centres. A separate deployment of Static Magistrate has been made at the highly sensitive plus polling station.
Tremendous enthusiasm is being seen among the voters regarding the elections. People are standing in queue since morning to vote. Voting will continue till 6 pm. Voting will be done by EVMs for the post of Mayor and Councillor, while voting is being done by ballot papers for other posts.
The BJP has set a target of securing up to 60 per cent votes in the civic polls with victory in all 17 municipal corporations. Therefore, along with winning all the seats, there is also a challenge in front of the BJP to increase the margin of victory.
BJP has fielded Sushma Kharkwal as its candidate in capital Lucknow. SP has given ticket to Vandana Mishra.
BJP has given ticket to Umesh Chandra Ganesh Kesarwani from Prayagraj. Minister Nandi’s wife Abhilasha Nandi has been mayor twice. This time Abhilasha’s ticket has been cancelled. Kesarwani is contesting against SP’s Ajay Srivastava.
The whole state and the country is eyeing the election of Varanasi Municipal Corporation, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In such a situation, Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, BJP State President Bhupendra Chaudhary and Organization Minister Dharampal Singh are keeping a close watch here. In Varanasi, the BJP has fielded regional minister Ashok Tiwari as its candidate.
BJP has nominated Dr. Manglesh Srivastava from Gorakhpur. Yogi has completely focused on Gorakhpur. CM Yogi has done many election meetings here. In such a situation, this seat is very important. SP has fielded Kajal Nishad.
BJP has fielded former MLA Hemlata Diwakar from Agra. Here Union Minister of State and MP Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel, Minister for Women and Child Development Babyrani Maurya, Higher Education Minister Yogendra Upadhyay and Member of the Legislative Council from Agra Dharamveer Prajapati are at stake. SP has made Juhi Prakash Jatav its candidate.
In the first phase Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Mainpuri, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Sitapur Elections are being held in Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli and Jaunpur.
Wicket/AKJ
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