UP Assembly polls: Mayawati's BSP fields SC candidates against Akhilesh, uncle Shivpal Yadav in Karhal and Jaswant Nagar

Lucknow: The BSP on Thursday fielded Scheduled Castes candidates from Karhal and Jaswant Nagar, the seats from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav will be contesting the UP Assembly polls, respectively. Apart from the two candidates, the party also declared 51 other names for the third phase of the UP Assembly elections. According to the list of 53 candidates, Kuldeep Narain will be contesting from Mainpuri’s Karhal against Akhilesh. A candidate belonging to the SC community will be contesting from Etawah’s Jaswant Nagar against Shivpal. According to the BSP, the seats for which it announced the candidates fall in Hathras, Firozabad, Kasganj, Etah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba districts. The elections will be held in seven phases and the counting will take place on 10 March. In the third phase, polling will be held on 20 February for 59 seats spread over 16 districts. Fifteen of these seats fall in reserve category. For the seats that go to polls in the third phase, the BSP has fielded six women and three Muslims. Earlier on Saturday, the party had released a list of 51 names for the second phase, the polling for which will be held on 14 February.