Assembly elections: Campaigning ends for one-phase elections in Punjab, third phase elections in UP

Campaigning for the third phase of the UP Assembly elections ended on Friday, with senior leaders of all parties making a last-ditch effort to woo voters in 59 constituencies spread across 16 districts. 627 candidates are in the fray in the third phase in which over 2.15 crore people are eligible to vote.

The districts where polling will be held include Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba. The Karhal assembly seat, from where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting, will go to polls in this phase on Sunday as well. BJP has fielded Union Minister SP Singh Baghel from this seat.

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Voting on Sunday will also seal the fate of Samajwadi Party chief’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is contesting from his traditional Jaswantnagar seat. Ahead of the third phase of polling, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned from house to house in Kanpur, Kalpi, Jalaun and Hamirpur, while Mayawati addressed election meetings in Jalaun and Auraiya. SP Patron Mulayam Singh Yadav sought votes for his son in Karhal. The BJP had approached the Election Commission and demanded deployment of paramilitary forces at all booths in Karhal. Prominent faces in this phase are BJP’s Satish Mahana (Maharajpur in Kanpur) and Ramvir Upadhyay (Sadabad in Hathras) and Louis Khurshid, who is contesting on Congress ticket from Farrukhabad Sadar. Former IPS officer Aseem Arun is contesting from Kannauj Sadar on a BJP ticket while UP minister Ramnaresh Agnihotri is also in the fray in this phase. In the 2017 elections, the BJP had won 49 of the 59 seats, while the SP settled on nine. Congress got one seat and Bahujan Samaj Party got one seat vacant. Voting will start from 7 am on Sunday and will continue till 6 pm.

Campaigning for Punjab’s 117 assembly seats also came to a halt, while political parties made last-minute efforts to garner support for their candidates ahead of the February 20 elections. The Congress released its manifesto earlier in the day, promising financial aid for women, one lakh government jobs and creation of corporations for alcohol sales and sand mining if it returns to power in the state.

Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia held road shows in Bhadaur, Jalalabad, Raikot and Amritsar respectively. former chief minister Amarinder Singh and defense minister Rajnath Singh Road show in Patiala. Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD President Sukhbir Badal also campaigned on the last day. A total of 1,304 candidates, including 93 women, are in the fray in the state. Punjab Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju said that the polling will be held from 8 am to 6 pm. The Election Commission had earlier extended the date of voting for the assembly elections from February 14 to February 20 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.

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Prominent candidates in the election are Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Aam Aadmi Party’s CM face Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, former CMs Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Channi is contesting from two seats, Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar and Bhadaur in Barnala. AAP’s Mann is contesting from Dhuri, which is part of the Sangrur parliamentary constituency, from where he has been a two-time MP. Sidhu is pitted against Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia from Amritsar East seat.

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