73 assembly constituencies, spread across 15 districts in the western part of the Uttar Pradesh is all set for the crucial first phase of the assembly polls. The voting will begin on Saturday morning at 7 am. A total of 839 candidates are in fray.
The Maximum number of candidates are in Agra South where 26 are trying their luck to be part of the 17th state assembly. The least number of candidates – six each – are from Hastinapur, Iglas and Loni seats.
In order to conduct the polling peacefully, about 826 companies of central forces have been stationed for the first phase of polling.
Interestingly, for the first time in the electoral history of the region Mulayam Singh Yadav did not campaign for the Samajwadi Party (SP) following the rift with his son and current Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Besides Mulayam, Congress President Sonia Gandhi also did not turn up due to ill-health
What happened in last elections?
In the 2012 assembly polls, of the 73 seats — SP had won 24 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party 23, Bharatiya Janata Party 12, Rashtriya Lok Dal 9 and Congress 5 seats .
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won all the 12 seats here and many veterans like Ajit Singh were drowned in the saffron surge.
There are 2.59 crore voters who would exercise there franchise on February 11, of which 1.42 crore are men, 1.17 crore women and 1,511 from the third gender.
