Uttar Pradesh Assembly election: 69 seats across 12 districts, including Lucknow, go to polls today
The key seats to watch out for will be Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lok Sabha constituency Lucknow, and Samajwadi Party strongholds Kannauj, Mainpuri and Etawah.
In Short
- Etawah is the hometown of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
- Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is an MP from Kannauj.
- Congress leader P L Punia's son Tanuj Punia is trying his luck from the Jaidpur seat in Barabanki.
Voting for 69 Assembly constituencies across 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh is on in the state's third phase of polling today. The fate of a total of 826 candidates will be decided in this phase.
The key seats to watch out for are Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's Lok Sabha constituency Lucknow, and Samajwadi Party strongholds Kannauj, Mainpuri and Etawah.
Apart from those listed above, Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur, Unnao, Barabanki and Sitapur are the other 8 districts where polling is being held.
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Etawah is the hometown of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, while another key district is Mainpuri, from where SP leader Tej Pratap Yadav is an MP. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is an MP from Kannauj.
HOW SP FARED ON THESE SEATS IN 2012 POLLS
In the 2012 Assembly polls, Samajwadi Party had won 55 of these 69 seats, while the BSP, the BJP and the Congress secured just six, five and two seats respectively. One seat went to an Independent.
As many as 2.41 crore voters, including 1.10 crore women and 1,026 belonging to third gender category, will exercise their franchise in this round.
While the maximum number of 21 candidates are contesting from Etawah, a minimum of three are in Haidergarh (Barabanki).
Lucknow West and Central constituencies have 17 candidates each.
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Voting will take place in 25,603 polling booths in this phase.
Prominent among those whose prestige will be at stake are SP leader Naresh Agarwal's son Nitin Agarwal, Brijesh Pathak -- who defected from the BSP and is fighting on a BJP ticket from Lucknow (Central) and BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi (who quit the Congress) from Lucknow Cantt, who is pitted against Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna.
SP leader Shivpal too is a key figure in this phase. He is fighting from Jaswant Nagar seat.
Congress leader P L Punia's son Tanuj Punia is trying his luck from the Jaidpur seat in Barabanki.