Campaigning ends for the Third-Phase UP asssembly polls

In UP, campaigning for phase-3 polls concluded on Friday evening.  Polling will be held for 59 seats spread over 16 districts in the third phase on February 20. Of them five districts are from Western UP, six from the Awadh region and five from the Bundelkhand region. These districts are Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Kasganj, Hathras, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Kannauj, Etawa, Farrukhabad, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Mahoba.

Altogether, there is a total of 627 candidates in the fray from the 59 constituencies going to the polls. Of them, 96 candidates are women. As far as key candidates are concerned, the most high-profile contest is in the Karhal assembly constituency where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will take on Union Minister and BJP candidate SP Singh Baghel. Other key candidates are Shivpal Singh Yadav Yogi government minister Satish Mahana, IPS turned politician Asim Arun, Ms Luis Khurshid wife of senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and ex BSP leader now BJP leader Ramveer Upadhyaya. In 2017 elections 49 seats were won by BJP, 8 by SP and one each by Congress and BSP. Voting for the first two phases took place on February 10 and February 14 respectively.