Uttar Pradesh: Voting begins for urban local body polls

Voting for the first phase of urban local body elections in Uttar Pradesh began on Thursday morning.

The voting, which commenced at 7 am, will continue till 6 pm, officials said.

According to the State Election Commission (SEC), voters in 37 districts will exercise their franchise in the first phase of the polls to elect 7,593 representatives, including 10 mayors and 820 corporators.

These elections will pose a key test for the parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.

More than 2.40 crore people are eligible to vote in the first phase, officials said, adding that all the posts are being contested on party symbols.

In the first phase, polling will be held for 103 posts of nagar palika parishad chairperson and 2,740 nagar palika parishad members.

Besides, the voters will decide the fate of 275 candidates vying for the posts of nagar panchayat chairperson and 3,645 nagar panchayat members.

A total of 44,232 candidates are in the fray in the first phase.

SEC officials said 85 representatives, including 10 corporators, have already been elected unopposed.

The districts where mayoral election will be held in the first phase are Saharanpur, Agra, Moradabad, Firozabad, Mathura, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will cast his vote in Lucknow, while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will cast his vote in Gorakhpur. Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak will cast their votes in Prayagraj and Lucknow, respectively. Former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma will also cast his vote in Lucknow.

According to police, 19,880 inspectors and sub-inspectors, 1,01,477 head constables and constables, 47,985 home guards, 86 companies of Pradeshik Armed Constabulary, 35 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, and 7,500 under-training sub-inspectors have been deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections.

Polling for the second and last phase of the urban body elections will take place on May 11. The counting of votes for both the phases will take place on May 13.