Lucknow, February 9: The voting for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2022 will take place on Thursday. The polling will begin at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm. A total of 58 Assembly constituencies will go to polls covering most parts of west UP. During the First Phase of Assembly Elections, there are 623 candidates in the fray. All the necessary preparations have been made for this phase of voting. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: A Look Back at The Polling, Alliances And Results of 2017 Election Ahead of Vidhan Sabha Polls.

The assembly seats going for polls are from 11 districts - Aligarh, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahar, Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Mathura and Muzaffarnagar. A maximum of 1,250 electors are allowed in a polling station due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of the 58 seats going to polls in the first phase, nine are reserved for the Scheduled Castes.

Among the key candidates who are contesting in the first phase are former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, nine state cabinet ministers, including Suresh Rana, Shrikant Sharma and Choudhari Lakshmi Narain, Samajwadi Party candidates Shahid Manzoor and Sanjay Lathar, Rashtriya Lok Dal candidates Avtar Singh Bhadana and Rajpal, Gajraaj Singh and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Pakaj Awana. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: Know How To Check Name in Voter List and Download Voter Slip.

In these elections, the BJP has formed an alliance with Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Sanjay Nishad’ NISHAD Party. Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party is contesting the UP polls in alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) of Shivpal Yadav, Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) led by Krishna Patel, Mahan Dal and Janvadi Party (Socialist). The Congress has decided to contest the polls alone.

The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be conducted in seven phases on February 10, 14, 20,  23, 27, March 3 and 7. The votes will be counted on March 10, and on the same day, the results will be declared. Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022: From Yogi Adityanath to Akhilesh Yadav, Here Are CM Probables In UP.

During the 2017 assembly elections, the NDA alliance led by the BJP got a total of 325 seats. Out of this, the saffron won 312 seats. The Samajwadi Party contested the 2017 polls in alliance with the Congress. The Akhilesh-Yadav-led party won only 47 seats, while the grand old party managed to bag only seven seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won only 19 seats.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 09, 2022 11:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).