The Election Commission issued the notification for the third phase of Assembly polls in 69 segments of Central Uttar Pradesh, here on Tuesday. The polling for the third phase will be held on February 19. With the issuance of the notification, nomination process for the third phase of election in 12 districts has commenced. The districts going to polls in the third phase are trouble torn areas for the EC as districts like Etawah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Farrukahabad have the previous record of rigging and other irregularities during the polling. While the nominations for the third phase commended, Tuesday was the last date for the filing of nominations for the first phase of polling in 73 Assembly seats in West UP. The nomination process for the second phase of polls will continue end on January 27. The nominations for the third phase will continue till January 31 while scrutiny of papers would be held on the next day. Candidates can withdraw their nominations till February 3. A total of 2.41-crore electorate are expected to exercise their franchise in the third phase of polling out of which 1.31-crore are male and 1.10-crore are female and 1,026 are third gender. There would be 25,603 polling booths in this phase.
The third phase would be most important for the ruling Samajwadi Party as they had won 55 seats of the total 69 in 2012 elections followed by 6 of the BSP, five of BJP and two of Congress candidates. One seat was also won by Independent. The districts going to polls in the third phase are Farrukahbad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auriyya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur city, Unnao, lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur.
The third phase of polling would be held in the following assembly seats —Kaimganj (SC), Amritpur, Farrukhabad, Bhojpur, Sawayazpur, Sahabad, Hardoi, Gopamau (SC), Sandi (SC), Bilgram Mallanwan, Balamau (SC), Sandila, Chhibramau, Tirwa, Kannauj (SC), Mainpuri, Bhongaon, Kishni (SC), Karhal, Jaswantnagar, Etawah, Bharthana (SC), Bidhuna, Dibiyapur, Auraiya (SC), Rasulabad (SC), Akbarpur-Raniya, Sikandra, Bhognipur, Bilhaur (SC), Bithoor, Kalyanpur, Govindnagar, Sishamau, Arya Nagar, Kidwai Nagar, Kanpur Cantt, Maharajpur, Ghatampur (SC), Bangermau, Safipur (SC), Mohan (SC), Unnao, Bhagwantnagar, Purwa, Malihabad (SC), Bakshi Ka Talab, Sarojni Nagar, lucknow West, lucknow North, lucknow East, lucknow Central, lucknow Cantt, Mohanlalganj (SC), Kursi, Ram Nagar, Barabanki, Zaidpur (SC), Dariyabad, Rudauli, Maholi, Sitapur, Hargaon (SC), laharpur, Biswan, Sevata, Mohmoodabad, Sidhauli (SC) and Misrikh (SC).