Uttar Pradesh civic polls: First phase of elections underway in 24 districts; Yogi Adityanath confident of BJP's win

Gorakhpur: Polling for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh civic elections is being held in 24 districts on Wednesday with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath exercising his vote in Gorakhpur. He exuded confidence that the BJP will come out with flying colours all over the state. [caption id=“attachment_4217865” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. PTI[/caption] The chief minister cast his vote at the polling centre in Kanya Primary Pathshala in ward number 68 in old Gorakhpur on Wednesday morning. Interacting with media later, the chief minister asked everyone to exercise their democratic right. “The BJP will get massive victory in these elections … The BJP candidates will win on all the seats,” he said before leaving for Varanasi and Allahabad for campaigning for the remaining phases of the elections. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State Shiv Pratap Shukla cast his vote at the St Andrew’s College polling booth and exhorted people to use their right to vote in a big way. Speaking to newspersons, he said that his party wanted to give more rights to Mayors of the Nagar Nigams for which it will also bring an amendment in the existing law. Polling for the 25 districts will be held on 26 November and for the 26 seats on 29 November, while counting of votes for all the three phases would be done on 1 December and results will be declared on the same day. Over 3.36 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise for 16 nagar nigams, 198 nagar palika parishads and 438 nagar panchayats. The districts where polling is taking place today are Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Bijnore, Badaun, Hathras, Kasganj, Agra, Kanpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Amethi, Faizabad, Gonda, Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Sonebhadra. Follow LIVE updates here