Assembly Elections:Phase-3 voting underway in UP

In UP, voting for the third phase of the Assembly elections is being held for 59 seats spread across 16 districts. This is the most crucial round of elections so far and will decide the political direction that the state is headed for. Voting started at 7 a m across 16 crucial districts – Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba. Fate or Samajwadi Party supremo and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav  and BJP candidate and Union minister SP Singh Baghel will be be sealed  in this phase. Both are fighting election from Karhal seat. After phase three, nearly half of UP's 403 assembly seats would have voted. 172 seats will finish polling after this phase. Polling will go on till 6pm. A total of 627 candidates are in the fray in the third phase, while over 20 million people are eligible to vote. The counting of votes will be held on March 10.

Congress-ruled Punjab will also vote on Sunday. Polling in Punjab will be held from 8 am to 6 pm for all 117 assembly seats. Prominent faces in Punjab are Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi from the Chamkaur Sahib seat, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu against SAD's Bikram Singh Majithia from the Amritsar East seat, Captain Amarinder Singh from Patiala, Sukhbir Singh Badal from the Jalalabad Assembly constituency, Parkash Singh Badal from the Lambi seat, Ganieve Kaur Majithia from the Majitha seat and Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Bathinda seat.