With the Election Commission of India issuing the notification for the first phase of elections, the process for the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha has been set in motion.
Eight Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in the first phase of the elections.
The ECI issued the notification for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.
The process of filing nomination papers in these eight constituencies also commenced from Wednesday.
Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said that polling for this phase would be held on April 19.
The eight Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the first phase are Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit. Except for Nagina (reserved for Scheduled Castes), the others are general category seats.
There are 1.43 crore voters in these eight constituencies – 76.23 lakh males, 67.14 lakh females and 824 third gender voters.
There are 7,693 polling stations and 14,842 polling booths in these constituencies.
The last date for filing nominations for these Lok Sabha seats is March 27. Nomination papers can be filed between 11 am and 3 pm.
Scrutiny of papers will be done on March 28 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 30.
The counting of votes in all the constituencies of Uttar Pradesh will be taken up on June 4.
All the eight Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the first phase are in nine districts of Saharanpur, Moradabad and Bareilly divisions – Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Moradabad, Rampur, Pilibhit and Bareilly.
The CEO said the general category candidate would have to make a security deposit of Rs 25,000 and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidate would have to make a security deposit of Rs 12,500.
Candidates of national and state parties will require one elector from the constituency as proposer and registered unrecognised political parties and independent candidates will require 10 proposers.
The maximum expenditure limit in the Lok Sabha constituency is fixed at Rs 95 lakh.
At the time of nomination, entry of a maximum of three vehicles and five persons, including the candidate, will be allowed within the radius of 100 metres of the office of the returning officer/assistant returning officer. Candidates fielded by political parties will have to file Form-A and Form-B.
The ECI is committed to conducting free, fair, peaceful, fear-free, inducement-free, inclusive and safe voting in the state, the CEO added.
Uttar Pradesh is likely to witness a three-cornered contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Samajwadi Party-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and the Bahujan Samaj Party that has announced to go it alone.
The BJP has announced candidates for 51 Lok Sabha seats in UP, the SP for 41 seats and] the BSP for 14.