On Thursday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urged people to vote for “New Uttar Pradesh”. He also urged the people to participate in the election campaign, saying voting was a greater responsibility for voters.
“In democracies, ‘sabse bada dan matdan hota hai’ (voting is a greater duty); voting for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections begins today…to create a new state of Uttar Pradesh,” he said with Indy Yu tweeted.
Voting for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections began at 7am on Thursday in 58 parliamentary seats covering 11 districts in the state.
Voting will close at 6pm today.
The first phase will cover the “Jat Dominant Belt” in the western part of the state.
The districts where voting was held on Thursday were Mathura, Muzaffar Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Hapur, Shamli, Baghpat, Aligarh, Agra and Gautam Fornagar.
As many as 623 candidates compete in the first stage of parliamentary voting, with nearly 227 million voters set to decide their fate.
Nearly 50,000 paramilitaries from 412 companies of the central paramilitary force have been deployed in various locations to maintain law and order as the campaign for the first phase of the polls in the western parliament of Uttar Pradesh concluded on Tuesday night.
Police have sealed the state’s borders and are on strict vigilance to keep the peace in the 58 parliamentary constituencies where voting will take place today.
The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to vote in seven stages on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3 and 7. Counting will take place on March 10.
Complete News Source : Business Standard
