Uttar Pradesh: The polling battle in the Yogi Adityanath territory began today. With nearly 58 assembly seats being contested, 11 districts in the western part of the state are witnessing polling chaos. The voter turnout from 7 am today morning reached 20.03 per cent until 11 am.
The first phase covers the Jat dominated belt of western Up from where farmers had participated actively in the stir against the three contentious farm laws. Districts underway polls include Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra.
Ahead of the polls, the current CM of the state urged people to vote for BJP. He was quoted as saying, “ Uttar Pradesh will become Kashmir, Kerala or Bengal if voters” make a mistake.”
Among the prominent candidates in the first phase is Pankaj Singh, sitting MLA from Noida and son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Baby Rani Maurya, former Uttarakhand governor who is contesting from Agra Rural.
The big challenger of the BJP is the rainbow coalition led by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has augmented his Muslim-Yadav support base with small parties that command a following among the Other Backward Classes. His key ally is Jayant Chaudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal, whose supporters have an influence on more than 30 seats.