 "Western UP gears up for first phase of polling starting today")
The battleground for all prime ministerial candidates or hopefuls, Uttar Pradesh goes to polls tomorrow in 10 parliamentary constituencies spread over 11 districts in the western region.
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (contesting from Varanasi), Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal (Varanasi) and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri and Azamgarh) all are in fray in UP turf. However, their constituencies would witness polling in subsequent phases.
The collage of candidates in fray for these 10 seats feature a retired army chief, a former top cop, actor-turned politicians with those having a tainted past.
Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party had won the maximum 5 seats in these constituencies during 2009 Lok Sabha poll, followed by BJP (2), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) (2) and Samajwadi Party (1). Congress had drawn a nil.
About 17 million electorates would decide the fate of 146 candidates belonging to different parties. The constituencies are Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Kairana, Aligarh, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Gautambudh Nagar, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr.
The western UP region had witnessed communal riots last year, in which several lives were lost. The region has a sizeable Muslim population and they can influence the outcome of results with their voting pattern.
In the aftermath of the riots, there was palpable anger amongst the community over the perceptible failure of the Akhilesh Yadav led state government in controlling violence. The electorate is likely to get polarised on community lines and BJP is projected to be the major beneficiary in this phase.
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A total of 8,435 polling centres and 16,788 polling stations have been set up in these constituencies to facilitate voting.
The prominent candidates in fray include former army chief General V K Singh (Ghaziabad), actor turned politicians Raj Babbar (Ghaziabad), Jaya Prada (Bijnore), Nagma (Meerut), AAP founding member Shazia Ilmi (Ghaziabad) etc.
Ex-Mumbai Police commissioner Satyapal Singh is contesting as BJP candidate against RLD president Ajit Singh in Baghpat.
Imran Masood, the nephew of former union minister Rashid Masood, is in fray from Saharanpur as Congress nominee. He recently shot to fame for his diatribe against Modi, following which a case was registered against him and he was arrested. He is currently out on bail.
UP would witness polling in 6 phases on April 10 (10 seats), April 17 (11 seats), April 24 (12 seats), April 30 (14 seats), May 7 (15 seats) and May 12 (18 seats). Lucknow and Varanasi constituencies would see polling on April 30 and May 12 respectively.