The campaigning for the first phase of civic polls in Uttar Pradesh ended on Monday evening where polling would be held on November 22.
Altogether 24 districts will go to polls in the first phase which include elections to Mayoral posts. Polling would be held from 7.30 am to 5 pm amid tight security.
Polling in the other two phases would be held on November 26 and 29 respectively, while counting of votes for all three phases would be held on December 1 and results were expected to be declared the same day.
Districts going to polls in the first phase on November 22 are Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Bijnore, Badaun, Hathras, Kasganj, Agra, Kanpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Amethi, Faizabad, Gonda, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ghaziipur and Sonebhadra.
This would be the first political test of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state which came to power on March 19 last.
The Bharatiya Janta Party is leaving no stone unturned in the campaigning with Yogi leading the campaign by addressing several rallies in poll-bound districts. Other senior BJP leaders, including state chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, were also actively campaigning.
While Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have left the campaigning to its second-rung leaders, Congress has engaged senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar to address poll meetings in select pockets of the state.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) S K Agarwal said in Lucknow on Monday that all arrangements for smooth conduct of the first phase have been made.
Polling personnel would start reaching their booths by the evening of November 21 along with security force. For the first time, around 40 companies of Central Para-Military Forces have been given to the state to maintain law and order during the elections.
In the first phase of polling, voting would be held in 24 districts covering five municipal corporations, 71 municipalities and 154 nagar panchayats. A total of 230 local bodies will go to polls in the first phase, covering 4,095 wards. There are 1.09 crore voters in this phase who will exercise their franchise at 11,679 booths.
According to the break-up, five municipal corporations in five districts will go to polls spread across 430 wards served by 4,697 booths. Similarly, elections will be held in 1,819 wards under 71 nagar palika parishad in 22 districts. Further, elections will be held for 152 nagar panchayats in 24 districts comprising 1,846 wards.