The stage is set for the second phase of polling to Urban Local Bodies in 25 districts on Sunday. A total of 1.29 crore voters will exercise their franchise at 13,777 booths for six municipal corporations, 51 municipalities and 132 nagar panchayats covering 3601 wards of 189 local bodies and voting would be done from 7:30 am to 5 pm.
More than 80,000 security personnel, including 40 companies of central paramilitary forces and 65 companies of PAC have been deployed for ensuirng law and order. Besides, more than 80 drone cameras in cities including 30 in Lucknow to will be pressed into service to preempt exigency. On directions of State Election Commission liquor vends will remain close till the end of polling on Sunday.
The districts going to polls in the second phase on November 26 are Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Amroha, Rampur, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Etawah, Lalitpur, Banda, Allahabad, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Ambedkarnagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Sant Kabirnagar, Deoria, Ballia, Varanasi and Bhadoi.
The stakes are high for the BJP and the Samajwadi Party as votingwill be done in Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Aligarh, and Ghaziabad. While Varanasi is the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, Lucknow is the constituency of Union Home minister Rajnath Singh, Ghaziabad that of Union minister of state General VK Singh and Aligarh is the home town of former BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh. Besides, cabinet minister Nand Gopal Gupta’s wife is vying for the Myoral post from Allahabad.