Election campaign for the first phase of 480 urban local bodies, including 10 Municipal Corporations, 104 Nagar Palika Parishad and 276 Nagar Panchayats in Uttar Pradesh covering 37 districts in nine divisions of Uttar Pradesh came to an end on Tuesday.
The State Election Commission officials said that the polling for the first phase of urban local body polls will be held on May 4 between 7 am to 6 pm and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. “While polling in Municipal Corporations will be held through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), ballot papers will be used in other places,” they said.
The officials said that the nine divisions covered in this phase include Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Devipatan. The polling will be held at 23,614 polling booths set up in 7,372 polling centers, they said.
Districts where polling will be held include 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, Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur Shravasti, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Maharajganj Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli and Jaunpur.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) Manoj Kumar said that 2.40 crore voters are eligible to practice their franchise for 10 posts of mayor and 820 corporators in Municipal Corporations, 103 posts of chairmen and 2,740 members of of Nagar Palika Parishads and 275 posts of chairmen and 3,845 members in Nagar Panchayats in 37 districts.
Meanwhile, a police spokesman said that tight security arrangements have been made to ensure fair and peaceful polling. “Total 19,880 Inspectors and Sub-Inspector along with 1,01,477 head constables and constables and 47,985 home guards have been deployed on poll duty,” he said.
The spokesman said that in addition to the police force 86 companies and two platoons of PAC and 35 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have also been deployed. “7,500 under trainee SI have also been deployed for the purpose of election training,” he said.
As the civic polls are being considered as a ‘semi-final’ before 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of major political parties, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress campaigned extensively on the last day of the campaign.
While Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with the battery of ministers and other BJP leaders held rallies and public meetings in different districts going to the poll on May 4, SP president Akhilesh Yadav held a roadshow in Saharanpur.
