Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls today in the second phase of the seven-phase Assembly elections in the state. There are 586 candidates in the fray in this phase with 55 seats spread across nine districts of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Badaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur. Over two crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise today. Of them 1,07,61,476 are male voters and 93,79,704 are female. The Election Commission of India has set up 12,544 polling booths for this phase.
Polling begins at 7 am today and ends by 6 pm. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. The voters have to carry a valid identity proof, preferably their Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC), to cast their vote. Some of the other valid identity cards one can carry to cast his or her vote include Aadhaar, MNREGA job card, photo passbook issued by banks, post offices, Driving Licence, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, and Pension document with photo. The entire election process will be completed under the supervision of paramilitary forces and the entire voting process will be videographed.
List of constituencies
Key candidates
The areas going to polls in this phase today have a sizeable Muslim population influenced by religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deoband sects. These areas are considered to be the strongholds of the Samajwadi Party. Of the 55 seats going to polls in this phase, the BJP had won 38 in 2017, while the Samajwadi Party had bagged 13 and the Congress and BSP two each. The SP and the Congress had contested the last assembly election in an alliance. Of the 15 seats won by the SP, Muslim candidates emerged victorious in 10.
The prominent faces in the fray in this phase today include senior Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, Dharam Singh Saini, the BJP minister who switched to SP after the polls were declared, and UP Finance Minister Suresh Khanna. Mohd Azam Khan has been fielded from his stronghold Rampur seat and is contesting polls from behind the bars. His son Abdullah Azam has been fielded from the Suar seat. He has been pitted against Haider Ali Khan, the heir of another political family, the Nawabs of Rampur, who is trying his luck on the ticket of Apna Dal Sonelal, a BJP ally. Haider Ali Khan is the grandson of former MP Noor Bano.
READ: Uttar Pradesh polls: 60.17 per cent voter turnout in first phase, no incident of violence
Suresh Khanna has been fielded from Shahjahanpur, while Dharam Singh Saini is trying his luck from the Nakud assembly segment. Other ministers in the fray are Baldev Singh Aulakh from Bilaspur, Mahesh Chandra Gupta from Badaun and Gulab Devi from Chandausi. The former mayor of Bareilly, Supriya Aron, is contesting from Bareilly Cantonment after joining the Samajwadi Party. The BJP, Samajwadi Party, Congress and the BSP have campaigned aggressively in this phase, hurling allegations at each other.
Those with criminal background
Nearly 25 per cent of candidates contesting the second phase of UP elections today have a criminal background. According to an analysis released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which has analysed affidavits of 584 out of 586 candidates, nearly 147 have criminal cases. Among the major parties, 35 out of 52 candidates analysed from SP, 23 out of 54 candidates analysed from Congress, 20 out of 55 candidates analysed from BSP, 18 out of 53 candidates analysed from BJP, 1 out of 3 candidates analysed from RLD and 7 out of 49 candidates analysed from AAP, have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Among the candidates with serious criminal cases include, 25 out of 52 candidates in SP, 16 out of 54 candidates from Congress, 15 out of 55 candidates from BSP, 11 out of 53 candidates from BJP, 1 out of 3 candidates from RLD and 6 out of 49 candidates analysed from AAP. Six of these candidates have declared cases related to crime against women and one candidate has a case related to murder. Nearly 29 of the 55 constituencies going to polls in the second phase are 'red alert' constituencies because of the presence of criminals.
Security bandobast
Security has been tightened in Uttar Pradesh for the second phase of polling today. Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), Civil Police and Home Guards have been deployed at all the polling stations in nine districts of the state. Apart from extra vigil by the central forces and police, the round-the-clock watch will be kept on social media. Special focus would be on eight sensitive constituencies in Bijnor, Sambhal and Saharanpur. A constituency is declared 'sensitive' if there is pronounced rivalry between political parties, presence of criminals, communal and caste tensions. The sensitive constituencies in Bijnor are Nagina, reserved for SC, Dhampur, and Bijnor. The focus will be on Deoband, Rampur Maniharan and Gangoh constituencies in Saharanpur and Sambhal and Asmoli in Sambhal.
Additional DG, law and order, Prashant Kumar, said the extra force will be deployed at all the polling booths in the eight constituencies, while the social media cell will keep a tab on fake information and inflammatory posts. The ADG further said, "The C-Plan smartphone application will also be used to keep a tab on anti-social elements by linking 10 select people of each village with the DGP control room."
