Assembly elections are being held in five states of the country. Today, voting will be held for 55 seats in the second phase in Uttar Pradesh and all the assembly seats of Goa along with Uttarakhand. In the elections to be held today, 1519 candidates are in the fray for a total of 165 seats in the three states. In which 586 candidates are in the fray for 55 assembly seats in UP, 632 in 70 seats in Uttarakhand and 301 in 40 seats in Goa. A total of 2.2 crore voters will exercise their franchise in UP today. At the same time, 11 lakh voters in Goa and 81,43,922 voters in Uttarakhand will exercise their franchise.
Voting will be held in nine districts of West Uttar Pradesh, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun and Shahjahanpur. Muslim voters are in a decisive role in more than 25 seats out of 55 seats in all these districts. At the same time, the influence of Dalit voters is more than 20 percent in 20 seats. The position of SP-RLD is considered strong in all these districts. Due to the farmers’ agitation, BJP may have to face the displeasure of sugarcane farmers in these seats. In the second phase, 18 million men, 0.94 million women and 1269 third gender voters will cast their votes today.
Polling at 23,404 polling stations in UP
23,404 polling stations and 12,544 polling booths have been set up for voting in UP. The Election Commission has deployed 51 general observers, 9 police observers and 17 other observers to monitor the polling. The Election Commission has also deployed a Senior Normal Observer, a Senior Police Observer and two Senior Expenditure Observers at the state level. These people will keep an eye on the entire election process. At the same time, arrangements have been made for live webtelecast at 50 percent polling booths of every district to observe the voting.
Uttarakhand election interesting this time
Last time out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand, 57 seats were with BJP and 11 with Congress. While two seats were captured by independents. This time it is believed that the main contest in the Uttarakhand assembly elections is between BJP and Congress. But the presence of independent candidates along with Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal in many seats can make the electoral contest interesting. This election is being seen as an electoral battle between the young leadership versus the experienced elderly leadership. Under which the political prestige of BJP’s young Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is at stake in the election, while on the other hand, the political existence of senior Congress leader Harish Rawat is at stake.
Tough competition in goa
Last time out of 40 seats in Goa, 17 seats were won by Congress, while 13 seats were won by BJP. Despite this, the BJP formed the government. The BJP formed the government with the support of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Goa Forward Party and three independents. But this time there can be a tough fight in the assembly elections. The ruling party BJP is facing a tough challenge from many opposition parties including Congress, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. Former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar is also contesting as an independent candidate from his father’s traditional Panaji assembly seat.
