Nomination process for phase 1 begins

First phase of voting for 55 constituencies to start from Feb 8.

The nomination process for the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll for phase I voting on February 8 started on Thursday.

In the first phase, 55 constituencies across 10 districts viz. Ambedkar Nagar, Barabanki, Basti, Bahraich, Balrampur, Faizabad, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar, Shravasti and Sitapur will witness polling.

About 17 million voters, including 9.3 million males and 7.7 million females, are eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase for which 13,186 polling centres would be set up and about 19,400 electronic voting machines (EVMs) pressed into service.

The returning officers had been instructed to allow candidates to take only three vehicles within 100 metres of nomination centre, while candidates could be accompanied by a maximum of five persons for filing nominations.

Candidates belonging to registered political parties will need a single person to propose their name whereas, candidates of non-registered parties will need 10 people to propose their nomination.

The candidates will have to submit two copies of oath along with their nomination forms, one each containing details of their criminal records and details of assets.

For Assembly poll, the general candidates would have to pay Rs 10,000 as security deposit during nomination, while SC/ST candidates would need to pay Rs 5,000.

The last date for filing nominations for phase I voting is January 19, while the scrutiny of nomination papers would be conducted on January 20; January 23 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.