The Election Commission will issue notification for the third phase of Assembly polls in 69 constituencies spread across 12 districts of central UP on Tuesday. With this, the process of filing nominations for the third phase would commence and polling would be held on February 19.
UP Chief Electoral Officer T Venkatesh said in lucknow that the notification would be issued at 11 am on Tuesday. While nominations for the third phase will start on Tuesday, it will be last date for filing nominations for the first phase of elections in 73 Assembly segments of west UP.
Nominations for the third phase will continue till January 31 and scrutiny of papers would be done 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 these, 1.31 crore are male and 1.10 crore are female while 1,026 are third gender. The EC will set up 25,603 polling booths in this phase.
The third phase would be the most important for the ruling Samajwadi Party as they had won 55 of the 69 seats in 2012 elections, followed by six by BSP, five by BJP and two by Congress candidates. One seat was also won by an Independent candidate.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Farrukahbad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auriyya, Kanpur Dehat, and Kanpur Nagar, Unnao, lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur.
Polling would be held in the following Assembly segmens - Kaimganj (SC), Amritpur, Farrukhabad, Bhojpur, Sawayazpur, Shahabad, 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, Auraiyya (SC), Rasulabad (SC), Akbarpur-Raniya, Sikandra, Bhognipur, Bilhaur (SC), Bithoor, Kalyanpur, Govindnagar, Sisamau, 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 Cantonment, Mohanlalganj (SC), Kursi, Ram Nagar, Barabanki, Zaidpur (SC), Dariyabad, Rudauli, Maholi, Sitapur, Hargaon (SC), laharpur, Biswan, Sevata, Mohmoodabad, Sidhauli (SC) and Misrikh (SC).
Meanwhile so far 469 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the first phase of the assembly elections in the state. In the first phase 73 assembly seats will go to polls. The notification for the first phase was issued on January 17 and the last date of filing papers is January 24. For the second phase, where polling will be held in 67 assembly constituencies on February 15, so far 130 papers have been filed. The last date for the withdrawal of papers is February 1.