Campaigning ends for third phase of polling in UP

The third phase will be a litmus test for the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), specially Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, since most seats were held by the party in 2012.

Lucknow, Feb 17: Campaigning for the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections came to an end at 5 p.m. on Friday. There are 826 candidates contesting for 69 seats, spread across 12 districts.

Polling will take place on February 19. The third phase will be a litmus test for the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), specially Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, since most seats were held by the party in 2012 and are in the Yadav pocket boroughs.

Prominent personalities whose fate would be decided in the third phase include ministers Arvind Singh 'Gop', Fareed Mehfooz Kidwai, Vijay Bahadur Pal, Abhishek Mishra, Nitin Agarwal, Narendra Verma, Rajeev Kumar Singh and former minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Districts where the polling would be held are Farukkhabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Hardoi, Kannauj, Kanpur rural, Kanpur city, Unnao, Lucknow, Barabanki, Auraiyya and Sitapur. A total of 2.41 crore voters will decide the fate of 826 candidates. There are 25,603 polling booths.

--IANS