The stage is set for the third phase of elections in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies which will go to polls on Tuesday, with all eyes on the first family of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav who are in the electoral fray.
While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple is aiming to retain the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat which she won in the bypolls following the demise of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akshaya Yadav, son of Ram Gopal Yadav, the national principal general secretary of SP, will try to reclaim the Firozabad seat, which he had won in 2014. Besides, Aditya Yadav, the son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav, is making his electoral debut from the Budaun Lok Sabha seat which was represented by his cousin Dharmendra Yadav in 2014.
The 10 constituencies in UP that will vote in the third phase on Tuesday are Sambhal, Hathras (SC), Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla and Bareilly.
In the earlier two phases of elections, polling was held in 16 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in UP.
Besides the Yadav family members, polling will be held to seal the fate of Union Minister SP Singh Baghel, UP Tourism Minister Jayveer Singh, Minister of State for Revenue Anoop Pradhan Balmiki.
Baghel, Jayveer Singh, and Balmiki are contesting from Agra (SC), Mainpuri, and Hathras (SC) Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
Rajveer Singh, son of former chief minister of UP and Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Kalyan Singh, is looking to score a hat-trick from the Etah parliamentary constituency, which was also represented in 2009 by Kalyan Singh as a candidate of the Jan Kranti Party.
In Bareilly, the main contest has narrowed down to the BJP’s Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar and Praveen Singh Aron of the SP after the nomination paper of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Master Chhotey Lal Gangwar was rejected.
In the third phase, the Bharatiya Janata Party has given tickets to five new faces — Chhatrapal Gangwar from Bareilly, Durvijay Singh Shakya from Budaun, Anoop Pradhan Balmiki from Hathras (SC), Vishwadeep Singh from Firozabad, and Jayveer Singh from Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. The first four replaced Santosh Gangwar, Sanghamitra Maurya, Rajveer Singh Diler, and Chandrasen Jadaun. Jayveer Singh is the sole candidate in this phase who replaced a losing candidate from BJP.
The saffron party retained the winning candidates from Etah, Agra (SC), Aonla, and Fatehpur Sikri. It also gave a ticket to Parameshwar Lal Saini from Sambhal Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress has fielded one candidate — Ramnath Singh Sikarwar from Fatehpur Sikri — while its INDIA bloc ally, the Samajwadi Party, has fielded candidates in the remaining nine seats in this phase.
UP’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said on Monday that elaborate arrangements were in place for the peaceful, free and fair conduct of the elections.
The polling will commence at 7 am, with over 1,89 crore voters expected to exercise their franchise.
As many as 88,420 polling personnel have been deployed in the 10 ten Lok Sabha seats going to polls on Tuesday.
Rinwa said 100 candidates were in the fray from 10 seats, including 10 women candidates.
The CEO appealed to the voters to ensure that they cast their vote.
He said for keeping close watch on the electoral process and maintaining law and order, the Election Commission of India had deployed three special observers, 10 general observers, six police observers and 14 expenditure observers. Besides 1,887 sector magistrates, 241 zonal magistrates, 668 static magistrates and 2,859 micro observers have been deployed.
