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.