Studded with rallies, road shows, attacks and counter-attacks, the high-pitched election campaign concluded on Wednesday evening for eight Lok Sabha constituencies of west Uttar Pradesh going to polls in the second phase on Friday (April 26).
The second phase polling will be held in Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh and Mathura Lok Sabha constituencies, Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa said on Wednesday.
As many as 91 candidates are in fray for these eight seats where there are a total of 1,67,77,198 voters (1.67 crore), including 90,26,051 male (90.26 lakh) , 77,50,356 (77.50 lakh) female and 791 third gender voters.
Twelve candidates are in the poll arena in Amroha, eight in Meerut, seven in Baghpat, 15 in Gautam Buddha Nagar, six in Bulandshahr, 14 each in Ghaziabad and Aligarh and 15 in Mathura.
The election is poised for a three-cornered contest with the NDA, the INDIA bloc and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielding their candidates.
The key candidates include former Union minister and sitting MP Mahesh Sharma in Gautam Buddh Nagar (BJP), sitting MP and actress Hema Malini in Mathura (BJP), actor Arun Govil in Meerut (BJP) and Congress candidate Danish Ali in Amroha.
Out of eight Phase 2 seats, the BJP had bagged seven —- Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh and Mathura — in 2019, defeating the SP-BSP- RLD alliance candidates in their stronghold. The BSP had bagged the Amroha seat.
This time, the BJP is contesting seven seats and has allotted the Baghpat seat to its ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
The SP has fielded candidates on four seats — Meerut, Baghpat, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Aligarh leaving the four other seats — Amroha, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad and Mathura — to its ally the Congress.
Adequate measures have been taken by the Election Commission of India to conduct fair and peaceful polling in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls on Friday, Rinwa said.
Polling personnel will leave the district headquarters for the polling stations on Thursday. The district election officers have been instructed to send the polling personnel on time, he said.
The district election officers have been instructed to provide necessary facilities to the voters and polling personnel at the polling centres and polling booths. The polling personnel will be provided medical kits to protect them from heat stroke and other health issues, he said.
For the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the campaign along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union home minister Amit Shah, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav addressed a joint rally in Amroha. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati also led her party’s campaign.
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