UP Assembly Elections 2022: From Karhal to Hathras, a look at key contests in 12 hot seats

Voting for 59 Assembly constituencies spread across 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh began on Sunday morning. This is the third phase of the Assembly polls in the state, where elections are to be held in seven rounds. As many as 627 candidates are in the fray in this phase, in which over 2.15 crore people are eligible to vote. The districts where polling is being held are Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba. This is the most crucial round of elections so far, with heavyweight candidates such as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav and Union minister SP Singh Baghel contesting for win today. Today’s polls might possibly draw out the political direction of the Uttar Pradesh elections. Here’s a look at the key constituencies and its key candidates in for polls today: Karhal: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Karhal, the constituency which is regarded as Yadab family’s bastion. The nondescript area, where Yadav’s father and SP’s founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was born, raised and had started his political career, is electrified to witness the greatest battle of all times as Union Minister and BJP leader SP Singh Baghel and BSP’s Kuldeep Narayan lock horns with Akhilesh Yadav. Visiting Karhal for a campaign, Amit Shah had said to Baghel that Karhal is equal to 300 seats in UP. “If you can beat SP in Karhal, BJP can beat SP in UP.” However, with 1.25 lakh Yadavs and over 18,000 Muslims, Karhal is home for the Yadav family with SP losing this seat only once, since 1992. Jaswantnagar: The seat from where SP’s founder Mulayam Singh Yadav has won five times and now Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother and Akhilesh’s uncle is contesting from this constituency. This seat is considered to be the stronghold of the Yadav family, where BJP has fielded the young first-timer Vivek Shakya. Kannauj: Another bastion of Samajwadi Party, Kannauj has seen SP rule for the last 25 years. However, just as BJP created a crack in the fort during Lok Sabha by defeating Dimpi Yadav, this time too, BJP has fieled the dynamic IPS officer Asim Arun against three-time winner SP’s Anil Kumar Dohare. . Hathras: Known to be in the news for all the wrong reasons of rape and women abuse, Hathras is a sensitive seat, where Congress even tried to field a candidate from the victim’s family. Brij Mohan of Samajwadi Party is contesting the election against BJP’s Anjula Mahor from Hathras. Click here to know more about Assembly Elections 2022 Sadabad: Sadabad Assembly constituency also falls under the Hathras Lok Sabha constituency and has seen four parties victorious in past five polls. This swinging seat will witness a fight between BJP’s Ramveer Upadhyaya, RLD leader Pradeep Chaudhari Guddu, Dr Avin Sharma from BSP and Mathura Prasad of the Congress. Maharajpur: BJP has fielded seven-time sitting MLA Satish Mahana from here, while the SP has put up Fateh Bahadur Singh Gill. The Congress has nominated Kanishka Pandey and Surendra Pal Singh is the BSP contestant. Satish Mahana has been the MLA in the seat for 30 years. Kanpur Cantt: The Assembly constituency will see a contest between Raghunandan Bhadauria of BJP, Mohd Hassan Rumi of SP, BSP’s Ashish Shukla and Congress leader Sohail Akhtar Ansari. Etawah: This Assembly is a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party which has fielded Sarvesh Shakya against BJP leader Sarita Bhadauriya, BSP’s Kuldeep Gupta and Mohd Rashid of Congress. Farrukhabad Sadar: Congres leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid’s wife Louise Khurshid is contesting from seat against BJP’s Major Sunil Dutt Dwivedi, SP leader Suman Maurya and Vijay Kumar Katiyar from BSP. Bilhaur: For close this constituency of Kanpur district, locals say that not the ‘Vikas Dubey’ factor, but issues of development, law and order, jobs and excess of stray cattle will be prominent factors on which voting will be done. Switching sides from BJP, Bhagwati Prasad Sagar, is contest from the BSP from this seat while BJP has fielded Rahul Bachha Sonkar. Jhansi: BJP has fielded sitting MLA Ravi Sharma, who has been winning since 2012 from this constituency. While the SP-RLD alliance has fielded Sita Ram Kushwaha, Rahul Richhariya is contesting for Congress. Govindnagar: BJP has fielded sitting MLA Surendra Maithani from this seat while SP-RLD alliance has pitted Vikas Yadav against him. Karishma Thakur is contesting with a Congress ticket and Ashok Kumar Kaliya is the BSP candidate. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News ,  India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.