Nearly 2.6 crore people in 73 constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh will be eligible to vote on Saturday in the first of the seven phases of high-stake Assembly elections.
839 candidates, including from main contenders BJP, BSP, allies Congress and Samajwadi party, RLD as well independents, are in the fray from the seats in 15 districts where 26,823 polling stations have been set up.
Among the electorate are 1.17 crore women and 1,508 belonging to third gender category. The largest constituency in terms of electorate is Sahibabad, while Jalesar is the smallest.
The maximum number of 26 candidates are in fray from Agra South, while the least number of aspirants are in Hastinapur which has six candidates.
Prominent contestants include Pankaj Singh (Noida seat), son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura) against whom BJP spokesman Srikant Sharma is in fray, Mriganka Singh (Kairana), daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh and controversial BJP MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana – Sardhan and Thanabhawan respectively.
Former BJP state president Lakshmikant Bajpai(Meerut), RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son-in-law Rahul Singh (SP) from Sikandarabad, and Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan Govenor Kalyan Singh from Atrauli are some other key figures.
In 2012, both SP and BSP bagged 24 seats each, with Rashtriya Lok Dal headed by Ajit Singh bagging nine and Congress five and BJP 11.
BJP is hoping to improve its performance as it had swept the state in the 2014 general elections, which gave the saffron party majority in Lok Sabha, and none of other parties could open their account in the region.
Around 6,000 paramilitary personnel are being deployed in all the 887 polling centres in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring Shamli to instil a sense of fearlessness among voters, especially with focus on the areas which had witnessed communal riots in 2013.
