Voting for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on 58 assembly seats covering 11 districts of the state began on Thursday at 7:00 am.
Covering the Jat-dominant belt of western Uttar Pradesh, the first phase of polls cover 58 assembly constituencies across 11 districts of the state. These districts include Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, and Mathura.
The voting, which will conclude at 6:00 pm today, is taking place at 25,849 polling stations and 10,766 polling centres.
As many as 623 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the assembly polls while nearly 2.27 crore voters will decide the fate of these candidates.
In the first phase of elections, the constituencies that have been the centre of attention and have particularly raised the political heat throughout the election campaign this year are Noida, Kairana, and Meerut among others.
From the Noida assembly seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again fielded Pankaj Singh, son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh whereas Congress has fielded Pankhuri Pathak for whom party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also held a door-to-door campaign. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Kriparam Sharma from this seat and Samajwadi Party's (SP) Sunil Chaudhary is also a candidate from this seat.
Meerut assembly seat has been the talking point after SP leader Rafiq Ansari passed the "Hindugardi" remark in a purported video. The BJP has fielded Kamal Dutt Sharma against him. Congress's Ranjan Sharma and BSP's Mohd Dilshad are also contesting from this seat.
Nearly 50,000 paramilitary personnel from 412 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed at different locations to maintain law and order as the election campaign for the first phase of assembly polls in western Uttar Pradesh ended on Tuesday evening.
The police have sealed the borders of the State and strict vigilance is underway to maintain peace in 58 assembly constituencies which will go to the polls today.
The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls in seven phases on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3, and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
(With inputs from ANI)
