Four candidates have officially entered the electoral fray in Uttar Pradesh, as confirmed by Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa. These nominations were submitted on Saturday for three out of the eight Lok Sabha seats slated for the second phase of the seven-phase parliamentary elections in the state.
The eight parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 26 are Amorha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautambuddha Nagar, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh, and Mathura.
Nominations for these seats commenced on Thursday, according to Rinwa. On Saturday, two individuals filed their nominations in Meerut, with one each in Ghaziabad and Mathura constituencies.
The Election Commission issued notifications for the polls on Thursday, setting April 4 as the deadline for filing nominations. Scrutiny of the nominations is scheduled for April 5, and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 8. Vote counting will take place on June 4, as per the EC’s announcement.
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These eight Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh collectively boast over 1.67 crore voters, comprising 90.11 lakh males, 77.38 lakh females, and 787 individuals belonging to the third gender.
There are a total of 7,797 polling stations and 17,677 polling booths across these constituencies.
In terms of party alliances, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest independently, while the Samajwadi Party has allied with the Congress as part of the opposition coalition.
On the other hand, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), previously aligned with the opposition, has now joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 62 seats, with its ally Apna Dal (S) clinching two seats. The Congress managed to win one seat, with Sonia Gandhi emerging victorious from Rae Bareli.
The SP-BSP alliance proved fruitful for the BSP, which secured 10 seats, while the SP won five. However, the RLD failed to secure any seats.
In the first phase of the 2019 polls, the BJP emerged victorious in Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, and Pilibhit parliamentary constituencies, while the SP clinched Moradabad and Rampur seats.
The BSP secured victories in Saharanpur, Bijnor, and Nagina (SC) constituencies.
