Urban local Bodies in 24 districts of the state will go to polls on Wednesday in the first phase of civic election.
In the first phase, voters will exercise their franchise in five municipal corporations, 71 nagar palika parishad and 154 nagar panchyats.
Districts where elections will be held are Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Bijnore, Badaun, Hathras, Kasganj, Agra, Kanpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Amethi, Faizabad, Gonda, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Sonebhadra. State Election Commissioner S K Agarwal said, “All necessary arrangements for free and fair conduct of elections are in place for the first phase. Webcasting, CCTV cameras, videography and other arrangements are in place to ensure transparency at polling booths.’’ The SEC said that polling officers have reached their respective booths. All poll officials have been ordered to reach their respective booths by Tuesday evening. The SEC reviewed the poll preparations with district officials through video conferencing on Monday. The UlB elections in 24 districts are being viewed as a test for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the popularity of his government. The political significance of the elections is further enhanced by the fact that Yogi is the first Chief Minister of UP, who is leading the party’s campaign from the front which was never done by any CM in the past. All eyes are focused on Ayodhya-Faizabad nagar nigam where the Samajwadi Party has fielded a transgender Gulshan Bindu for the Mayoral post. Yogi kicked off UlB poll campaign from Ayodhya on November 14. For the first time the people of Ayodhya would vote to elect a Mayor and corporators as the twin town was upgraded as municipal corporation by the BJP government. The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and it has deployed all state-level leaders, two Deputy CMs, cabinet ministers, MPs and MlAs for campaigning. The second and third phase of UlB polls would be held on November 26 and 29. Counting of votes would be held on December 1 and results wre expected to be declared the same evening.