Lucknow, February 4: The polling for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will take place in seven phases. The voting will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3, and 7. The votes will be counted on March 10, and on the same day, results will be declared. There are a total of 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. Primarily, the state will witness a tough fight between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Yogi Adityanath's Bastion Gorakhpur Urban To Akhilesh Yadav's Stronghold Karhal Assembly Seat, Here Are 7 Key Constituencies.

However, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are likely to dent the vote share of the BJP and SP. The BJP is contesting the elections under incumbent Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath, while Akhilesh Yadav is the CM candidate of the SP. Notably, the BSP chief Mayawati is not contesting the 2022 UP Vidhan Sabha polls. If we talk about the Congress, the grand old party had not announced its CM candidate for the UP polls, but the party is contesting the elections under Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: A Look Back at The Polling, Alliances And Results of 2017 Election Ahead of Vidhan Sabha Polls.

Here Are CM Candidates For UP Assembly Elections 2022:

Yogi Adityanath: Yogi Adityanath is seeking the second term as the CM of the state. The incumbent UP CM is contesting from Gorakhpur Urban assembly constituency. At 26, he was the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha. He won the Lok Sabha elections for five consecutive terms in the 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections. Gorakhpur is part of eastern UP and is a stronghold of Adityanath.

Akhilesh Yadav: He served as the CM of the state from 2012 to 2017. The SP Chief is contesting from his stronghold Karhal assembly seat in the Mainpuri district. Yadav was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha from Kannauj in a by-election in 2000. He was elected to the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha in 2004 and 2009 respectively. He served as the MP till 2012 as in March that year, he assumed the charge as the CM of UP. This time, he is confident of coming back to power defeating the BJP.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra: The Congress is contesting the UP assembly polls under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh. However, the grand old party is yet to announce the CM candidate. Earlier in January this year, when asked who will be the party's CM face in the state during the launch of the party's manifesto outlining job creation plans for the youth of Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi said: "Can you see any other face in UP?" However, a day later, she made a u-turn. Gandhi told ANI that she was not saying she was the party's chief ministerial candidate from Uttar Pradesh. It is still not clear, if she would contest the assembly elections or not.

There are a total of 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. If we talk about the 2017 UP assembly elections 2017, the BJP and its allies won 325 seats. A total of 312 seats were bagged by the saffron party alone. The SP and the Congress contested the 2017 UP polls in alliance. However, the SP managed to win only 47 seats and its alliance partner in 2017 polls, the Congress, bagged seven seats. Only 19 seats were won by the BSP.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 04, 2022 04:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).