623 candidates in fray for first phase of UP polls

New Delhi [India], February 9 (ANI): The first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on Thursday will decide the electoral fate of 623 candidates.
Tomorrow, the voting for 58 assembly constituencies spread across 11 districts of Uttar Pradesh will take place at 25,849 polling stations and 10,766 polling centres.
Covering the Jat-dominant belt of western Uttar Pradesh, the voting will commence from 7 AM and will continue till 6 PM.
As per the set norms, the campaigning for the first phase of the UP polls ended on Tuesday (February 8) at 6 pm, marking the start of a 48-hour-long silence period.
Eleven districts going to polls on February 10 are Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Aligarh, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, and Mathura.
In the Noida Assembly seat that will go to polls tomorrow, Samajwadi Party’s Sunil Chaudhary will contest against Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh. Congress leader Pankhuri Pathak and BSP leader Kriparam Sharma will also contest from this seat.
In Kairana seat, Samajwadi Party leader Nahid Hassan will contest against BJP leader Mriganka Singh.
In Aligarh seat, SP leader Zafar Alam will fight against BJP’s Mukta Raja. Congress leader Mohd Salman Imtiyaz and BSP leader Raziya Khan will also be contesting from this seat.
For Agra Rural (SC) seat, SP leader Mahesh Kumar Jatav will contest against former Uttrarakhnad governor and BJP leader Baby Rani Maurya. Upendra Singh from Congress and Kiran Prabha Kesari from BSP will also be in the fray here.
In Meerut, SP leader Rafiq Ansari is fielded against BJP’s Kamal Dutt Sharma. Congress’s Ranjan Sharma and BSP’s Mohd Dilshad are also contesting on this seat.
Nearly 50,000 paramilitary personnel from 412 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed at different locations to maintain poll-bound state’s law and order as the election campaign for the first phase of assembly polls in western Uttar Pradesh ended on Tuesday evening.
The police have sealed the borders of the State and strict vigilance is underway to maintain peace in 58 assembly constituencies which will go for polling tomorrow.
“The highest deployment will be seen in Muzaffarnagar, Aligarh and Meerut. In Mathura alone, 75 companies of paramilitary have been deployed and the total force deployed is 21,000 in this constituency,” security officials told ANI about the deployment of troops in sensitive areas.
The elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)