Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cast his vote as voting for the first phase of urban local body elections in the state began on Thursday morning. The voting commenced at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. The polling for the second and last phase of the urban body elections will take place on May 11, while the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
Over 2.4 crore people are eligible to vote in the first phase, officials were quoted by news agency PTI as saying. They added that all the posts are being contested on party symbols. These local body polls will pose a key test for the parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
As per 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.
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. As many as 85 representatives, including 10 corporators, have already been elected unopposed, SEC officials said.
The districts where mayoral election will be held in the first phase are Saharanpur, Agra, Moradabad, Firozabad, Mathura, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
Key leaders cast vote in UP local body elections
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath voted in Gorakhpur on Thursday, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will cast his vote in Lucknow. 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.
Hopeful of "positive results" in the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Election 2023, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who also voted on Thursday, said, "Our party is fighting this election alone without support of any other party. We are hopeful that our party will receive a good response and we will get positive results. I want all the citizens of the state to cast their vote for this election."
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.
First Published: May 4, 2023 7:37 AM IST
