Approximately 79,000 candidates are in the fray for the three-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh to be held later this month. Monday was the last day for filing nominations for the third and final phase and the exact number of candidates in fray will be clear after scrutiny and withdrawal on November 15.
The process has been completed for filing nominations for the first two phases in which polling is scheduled to be held on November 22 and 26. The nomination process ended on late Monday afternoon for the third phase in which poling will be held on November 29. The counting of votes for all three phases will be held on December 1.
State Election Commissioner SK Agarwal said in lucknow on Monday that the nomination process was peaceful and there was minimal violation of the model code of conduct. He said around 79,000 candidates were in the poll fray. The SEC has also requested for 60 companies of Central paramilitary forces for maintaining law and order during polls.
Agarwal said that in the first phase, there were 26,314 candidates for 230 local bodies, including 56 contesting for five mayoral seats, of which 23 were female.
In this phase, the highest number of candidates (13 each) are contesting for Gorakhpur, Kanpur and Agra mayoral seats, the newly constituted Ayodhya-Faizabad mayoral seat has nine contestants while Meerut (8) has the lowest numbr of mayoral seats.
In the first phase there are 3,856 candidates for Nagar Nigam wards, 901 for Nagar Palika chairperson post and 1,678 for Nagar Panchayat chairperson post. Besides, there are 10,642 candidates for ward posts in Nagar Palika and 9,181 candidates for ward members posts in Nagar Panchayat.
In the second phase, there are 24,674 candidates in the fray for 189 local bodies with 83 candidates for six mayoral posts. The highest number of candidates (24) are in the fray for Allahabad mayor’s post, followed by 19 in lucknow, 13 each in Aligarh and Ghaziabad, eight in Mathura and six in Varanasi.
In the third phase, there are around 28,000 candidates are in the fray for 233 local bodies. In the five mayoral seats, Bareilly (22) has the highest of candidates, followed by 20 in Jhansi, 15 in Moradabad, 14 in Saharanpur and 11 in Ferozabad. However, the number of candidates can come down as Monday was the last date for withdrawals.
Meanwhile, the SEC on Monday directed the poll observers to reach the districts assigned to them two days ahead of polling. The campaign for the first phase will end on November 20, second phase on November 24 and third phase on November 27.