Uttar Pradesh polls: Voting for 59 constituencies in third phase on Sunday

Polling for the third phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections will be held in 59 seats spread across 16 districts in the state on Sunday.

Following the guidelines laid down by the Election Commission, campaigning for the third phase of the state elections ended on Friday. Voting will start at 7 am today and will continue till 6 pm.

In the third phase of elections, 627 candidates are in the fray in 59 assembly constituencies, out of which 97 are women candidates.

Over 2.16 crore voters will exercise their franchise at 25,794 polling places and 15,557 polling stations in the third phase of Assembly elections.

52 General Observers, 16 Police Observers and 19 Expenditure Observers have also been deployed by the Commission to keep an eye on the polling. Apart from this, 2235 Sector Magistrates, 273 Zonal Magistrates, 832 Static Magistrates and 3069 Micro Observers have also been deployed. In the third phase, there will be 641 model polling stations and 129 all women workers polling places.

The 16 districts which will go to polls in the third phase of Assembly elections are Jhansi, Kanpur Dehat, Kannauj, Auriyya, Etah, Etawah, Farukkhabad, Firozabad, Hamirpur, Hathras, Jalaun, Kanpur Nagar, Kasganj, Lalitpur, Mahoba and Mainpuri.

Among the key constituencies where polling will be held today include Karhal where former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting his maiden Assembly election. The BJP has pitted Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice Satya Pal Singh Baghel against Akhilesh Yadav.

Akhilesh's uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) supremo Shivpal Singh Yadav is contesting from Jaswantnagar seat.

Voting for the remaining four phases of the seven-phase UP elections will take place on February 23, 27 and March 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.