Campaign ends for Phase III polls in UP on Apr 16

Lucknow, Apr 15: Lacklustre campaigning for the crucial Phase-III of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will end tomorrow evening where polling will be held on April 18 in 57 seats.

Fate of chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav(Gunnaur), deputy speaker of the state legislative asembly Rajesh Agarwal of BJP (Bareilly city), state Urban Development minister Mohammad Azam Khan (Rampur) along with several prominent candidates will be sealed in this phase.

Umlesh Yadav, mother of Vikas Yadav, convicted for the murder of Jessica Lall, is also contesting from Bisauli seat.

In this phase, stakes for the ruling Samajwadi Party's would be high as Gunnaur is constituency of the Chief Minister and it also involves assembly seats of Kannauj, from where his son Akhilesh Yadav is MP.

Congress leader Noor Bano will also put her effort to win back some of the seats for the party even as her son Kazim Ali who won the last 2002 polls on a Congress ticket, was contesting on SP ticket this time.

State Congress president Salman Khurshid's home district Farrukhabad will also go to polls in this phase. His wife Luise Khurshid is trying her luck for the second time from Kayamganj seat.

BJP MP Meneka Gandhi will also have to prove her popularity in Pilibhit while young Congress MP Jiten Prasad will fight all out in Shahjahanpur.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will address public meetings in Pilibhit, Bijnor and Barabanki in support of Congress candidates today.

This will be for the first time since campaigning began for the seven-phase assembly elections that the Prime Minister will address public meetings in UP.

Pilibhit is considered important for Congress as it is termed 'mini Punjab' with most of the voters belonging to the Sikh community. With reverses in Punjab assembly elections still fresh in the minds of Congress leadership, the Prime minister's public meeting assume importance in Pilibhit, which produces export quaity rice.

The 'Terai' region, which also includes parts of Eastern UP, is considered the rice bowl of the state.

In the 2002 assembly polls, the ruling SP won the maximum 25 seats out of the 57 at stake in the constituencies going to olls in this phase, while BJP won 10, BSP 10, Congress 4, RLD 1,CPI(M) 1, Independents 4 and others 2. A total of 1.51 crore voters, 82.1 lakh male and 69.1 lakh female, will exercise their franchise in 14730 polling booths. About 17000 electronic Voting Machines(EVMs) will also be used in the phase.

In the third phase, 863 candidates are in the fray for 57 assembly seats.

In the second phase of polling held yesterday altogether 881 candidates were in the fray for 58 seats.

In the first phase of polling on April 7, the fate of as many as 839 candidates were sealed in the EVMs where over 46 per cent of voters had cast ballots in 62 seats spread over 13 districts.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has directed district authorities to allow voters exercise their franchise even if they do not possess election photo identity cards (EPICs). But the voters will have to show at least one of the 13 photo identities cleared by the EC as alternatives to EPICs.

The central security forces would reach their respective areas of deployment by tomorrow evening to ensure free and fair polling. Over 650 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces are in the state to ensure free and fair polling.

The districts going to poll in the phase are Bijnor, Moradabad, Jyotiba Phule nagar, Rampur, Badaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad and Kannauj.

The constituencies are: Seohara, Bareilly City, Dhampur, Nawabganj, Afzalgarh, Bhojipura, Nagina (SC), Kawar, Nagibabad (SC), Baheri, Bijnor,Pilibhit, Chandpur, Barkhera(SC), Kanth, Bisalpur, Amroha, Puranpur, Hasanpur, Powayan(SC), Gangeshwari(SC), Nigohi, Sambhal, Tilhar, Bahjoi, Jalalabad, Chandausi(SC), Dadraul, Kunderki, Shahjahanpur, Moradabad West, Kannauj(SC), Moradabad, Umardha, Moradabad Rural, Chhibramau, Thakurdwara, Kamalganj, Suartanda, Farrukhabad, Rampur, Kayamganj, Bilaspur, Mohammdabad, Shahabad(SC), Bisauli, Gunnaur, Sahaswan, Bilsi(SC), Usehat, Binawar, Dataganj, Aonla, Sunha, Faridpur(SC) and Bareilly Cant.

UNI

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