INDIA (WN): The battle for Uttar Pradesh has begun. Two
phases of the seven-phase election are over and the polls to elect the
403-member state Assembly is reaching fever pitch. The biggest state in India
is witnessing a three-cornered fight this election between the Samajwadi
Party-Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Multi-cornered contests have been the trend
at least since 2002, when elections that year had thrown up a hung Assembly,
while in the 2007 and 2012 polls, the BSP and the SP won clear mandates to form
the government. With such contests emerge the possibility of many seats being
won by a whisker.
***Uttar
pradesh assembly election 2017 Won by whisker***
In the 2012 Assembly elections, 109 seats
were won by either less than three percent of the total votes polled or by a
margin of less than 6,000 votes. This translates to more than 25 percent of the
total seats of in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Of the 109 narrow margin
victories witnessed last election, 50 of them were registered by the SP, which
ultimately emerged victorious in 226 seats. BSP, its arch-rival was victorious
in 28 such seats.
Interestingly, 24 of the 109 seats were won
by less than a thousand votes. The narrowest of victory was recorded in the
Baheri constituency, where Ataurrehman of the SP defeated his nearest rival
Chhtrapal Singh of the BJP by just 18 votes.
In caste-dominated Uttar Pradesh politics,
close contests were recorded in 12 of the 85 constituencies reserved for
Scheduled Castes candidates. Of the 12 reserved constituencies, Ghatampur
recorded the lowest margin of victory, as Inderjeet Kori of the SP barely
managed to win a nail-biting contest by a margin of 700 votes. 42 of the 150
seats in western Uttar Pradesh were won by narrow margin
In 2012 elections, 22 of the 73 western Uttar
Pradesh seats were won by a margin of less than three percent of the votes
polled. Known to be communally sensitive, especially after the riots of
Muzaffarnagar, the Dadri lynching case and alleged exodus in Kairana, western
Uttar Pradesh is in the centrestage of this year's elections. In fact, the key
accused in the 2013 riots, Suresh Rana, managed to win the Thana Bhawan seat by
a margin of a paltry 265 votes. Western Uttar Pradesh went to polls in the
first phase of Assembly election on 11 February 2017.
In 2012, however, it was another BJP leader
Bimla Singh Solanki, who recorded the lowest margin of victory in the western
part of the state. In a close contest with BSP’s Saleem Akhtar Khan, Solanki
pulled off a victory in the Sikandrabad constituency by a margin of just 123
votes.
In the second phase of election on 15
February, 67 seats in the Muslim-dominated Rohilkhand region, a part of western
Uttar Pradesh, went to polls. Twenty of those seats were won by less than three
percent of the total votes polled in the last election. Behat constituency had
witnessed a close contest last time, as Mahaveer Singh Rana of the BSP narrowly
defeated Naresh of the Indian National Congress by 518 votes. Behat went to polls
on 15 February.
***Uttar
Pradesh Election 2017***
Sixty nine constituencies of central Uttar
Pradesh are voting in the third phase of state assembly elections on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took to
Twitter in the morning and urged people to vote in large numbers. A total of
826 candidates are in fray, whose fate will be decided by 2.41 crore voters.
***UP
elections phase 3 LIVE update below:***
12:30 pm: BJP candidate from Sarojini Nagar
(Lucknow), Swati Singh, casts her vote. She is contesting against BSP’s
Shankari Singh and SP’s Anurag Yadav.
12:22 pm: Mulayam Singh Yadav: “Modi ji ko
kehne do jo kehna hai, godh SP ko liya hai UP ne” (Let PM Modi say what he
wants to say, Uttar Pradesh has adopted SP)
12:05 pm: Mulayam Singh Yadav was accompanied
by his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, who is contesting against BJP’s Rita
Bahuguna Joshi. Joshi was earlier a member of Congress party but joined BJP
ahead of Assembly polls.
11:55 am: Mulayam Singh Yadav casts his vote
in Saifai. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj casts his vote in Unnao.
11:50 am: Disabled person in casts his vote
in Lucknow .
11:45 am: News agency ANI reports that 24.19
per cent voting has been recorded in the state till 11 am.
11:35 am: Union Minister and senior BJP
leader Kalraj Mishra casts his vote at Ganna Sansthan booth in Lucknow.
11:25 am: Update on polling percentage till
11 am
Kannauj 29%
Sitapur 20.68 %
10:52 am: BJP leader and Member of Parliament
Uma Bharti casts her vote at booth number 149 in Lucknow.
10:50 am: Here’s what the people have to say
about elections in Uttar Pradesh.
10:25 am: Senior Congress leader and forner
Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal casts his vote at booth number 111 in Kanpur.
10:09 am: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav also casts his vote in Saifai. “We were ahead in first two
phases and i am confident that we will stay ahead in third phase too,” news
agency ANI quoted him as saying.
9:55 am: News agency ANI reports that stones
were pelted at Shivpal Yadav’s car in Etawah’s Jaswantnagar. More details are
awaited. Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh cast his vote in Lucknow.
9:30 am: 12 per cent voting recorded till 9
am.
9:25 am: People reach Don Bosco school in
Gomtinagar to cast their vote. BSP’s Saroj Kumar Shukla, Congress’ Anurag Singh
bhaduria and BJP’s Ashutosh Tandon are contesting from this constituency.
Tandon is also the sitting MLA.
9:20 am: Voting percentage update till 9 am
Kanpur Nagar 7.71%
Kannauj 11.65%
Sitapur 11%
9:07 am: Mayawati says BSP will form
government after casting her vote in Lucknow.
9:05 am: Bahujan Samaj Party chief and former
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati arrives at poll booth number 251 in
Lucknow to cast her vote.
8:45 am: Shivpal Yadav aide and MLA Rajkumar
Shakya’s campaign against the party after he was denied ticket has added to the
SP’s problems.
8:30 am: BJP candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi
cast her vote in Lucknow. SP’s Aparna Yadav is contesting against her. Speaking
to the media, Joshi said that ‘Mulayam Singh Yadav’s emotional appeal points to
the fact that Aparna Yadav is losing’.
8:20 am: A Samajwadi Party campaign manager,
who is involved in planning Dimple Yadav’s campaign schedule, says her rallies
are usually planned around constituencies with women candidates or the ones
Akhilesh can’t make it to.
7:52 am: Ramgopal Yadav casts his vote in
Saifai. He said ‘there is no infighting within the party as far as voting is
concerned’ and that SP is winning more than 300 seats.
7:39 am: Samajwadi Party candidate Nitin
Agarwal, who is also a minister in the state government, waits as EVM machine
in booth number 198 of Hardoi is not working.
7:30 am: Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Abhay
Ram casts his vote in Saifai. He said that everything was alright in the family
and Samajwadi Party will form the government after the elections.
7:10 am:
Shivpal Yadav, Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Aparna Yadav’s constituencies go
into polling today. An estimated 2.4 crore people are eligible to cast their
vote.
7:03 am: Voting begins in 12 districts of
Uttar Pradesh. Total 826 candidates contesting from 69 constituencies.
6:50 am: Visuals from a polling booth in
Lucknow.
06:47 am: Third phase of voting in Uttar
Pradesh will begin shortly.
Final arrangements being carried out.
Contesting from Kannauj is his wife, Dimple
Yadav, who has struck a chord with the people, addressing her as ‘Bhabhi’. She
is now the star campaigner of the party, tagging along to grace the rallies of
sister-in-law Aparna Yadav as well.
Lucknow is also the Lok Sabha constituency of
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Etawah is the native place of SP patron
Mulayam Singh Yadav, while another key district is Mainpuri, from where Tej
Pratap Yadav is an SP MP. A total of 826 candidates are in fray, whose fate will
be decided by 2.41 crore voters, including 1.10 crore women and 1,026 belonging
to third gender category.
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