Campaigning ends for second phase of UP civic polls; voting to be held on 26 Nov

Lucknow: Campaigning for the second phase of Uttar Pradesh civic elections on 26 November ended in 25 districts, including Varanasi from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member of Lok Sabha. [caption id=“attachment_4172143” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] State election commissioner SK Agarwal on Friday reviewed poll preparations through video conferencing with district magistrates, district election officers, senior police officers and polling observers. Over 52 percent voting was recorded in the first phase on 22 November which covered 24 districts. After the BJP formed the government in the state with absolute majority in March, this will be the first battle of ballot that will test the popularity of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Unlike other parties, the BJP is taking the civic polls seriously and besides the chief minister himself and his two deputies, senior party leaders are extensively campaigning in the state. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have left the campaigning to second-rank leaders, the Congress has engaged senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar and MP Pramod Tewari to address election meetings in selected cities of the state. Voting will be held from 7 am to 5 pm amid tight security on 26 November. Besides Varanasi, the districts going to polls in the second phase are Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budhnagar, Amroha, Rampur, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Mainpuri , Farrukhabad, Etawah, Lalitpur, Banda, Allahabad, Lucknow, Sultanpur, Ambedkarnagar, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Sant Kabirnagar, Deoria, Ballia and Bhadohi. Polling for the third and final phase covering 26 districts will take place on November 29. Counting of votes for all the three phases will be on 1 December and results will be declared the same day.