Voting in all 117 seats of Punjab and 59 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh that were contested in the third phase of assembly elections on February 20 concluded at 6 pm, the election commission said, adding that Punjab recorded a voter turnout of 69.65 percent, while Uttar Pradesh registered 61.61 per cent.
In 2017, Punjab had recorded 77.36 per cent voter turnout.
Voting was held on all 117 seats in Punjab in a single-phase and 59 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in the third phase. The phase of as many as 1304 candidates in Punjab and another 627 candidates of Uttar Pradesh was sealed.
Voting began in UP at 7 am and at 8 am in Punjab. With today’s polling, three of the five states – Punjab, Goa, and Uttarakhand – will complete the elections. Four remaining phases of Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 23, February 27, March 3, and March 7. The two phases of Manipur will be held on February 28 and March 5
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With over 2.14 Crore voters, the border state was expected to witness a multi-cornered contest this time with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, and the coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party-former chief minister Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress party as key players.
The Congress had won 2017 assembly polls bagging 77 seats. The AAP emerged as the principal opposition with 20 seats.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who is the Congress's CM face, contested from two seats, Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur while Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu faced SAD's Bikram Singh Majithia, AAP's Jeevanjyot Kaur, and BJP's Jagmohan Singh Raju in Amritsar (East).
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AAP Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur and party's CM face Bhagwant Mann contested from Dhuri seat. Punjab Lok Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh is seeking re-election from the Patiala constituency.
Five-time Chief Minister and senior SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal were in the fray from the Lambi seat while SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal contested from Jalalabad. The BJP had pitted its Punjab unit chief Ashwani Kumar Sharma from the Pathankot constituency.
In the 59 assembly seats that went to polls across 16 districts in the third phase of the UP assembly election, there are over 2.15 crore people eligible to vote in this phase.
The most keenly-watched contest would, however, be, Karhal in Mainpuri, where SP chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is contesting his maiden assembly election.
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The third phase covered five districts from western Uttar Pradesh, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Kasganj, Hathras, six districts of Avadh region, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya, Kannauj, Etawah, Farrukhabad, and five districts from Bundelkhand region, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Mahoba.
Among these, eight districts – Mainpuri, Etawah, Firozabad, Kasganj, Etah, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, and Auraiya – were strongholds of the family of Mulayam Singh Yadav, at least until 2017 elections when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a clinching victory by bagging 312 of the 403 assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh. The SP could get just 47 of 403 seats in UP in 2017.
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Of the 59 seats going to polls today, the SP had won 37 in the 2012 Assembly polls. In 2017, the BJP won 49 while the SP only had to settle with 9. The Congress got one while the Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank form here. Of the 29 seats in the eight districts of ‘Yadav belt’, the BJP won 23 while the SP could win only six seats in 2017. In 2012, the SP had won 25 seats from here while the BJP had won just one seat.
This time, however, Akhilesh has entered the fray to act as a force multiplier in the third phase. His uncle Shivpal Yadav, is also contesting from Jaswantnagar in Etawah today.
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The BJP fielded Union minister of state for law and order and its Agra MP SP Singh Baghel against the former chief minister made the battle interesting. Baghel is a former SP loyal, who rose from being Mulayam Singh Yadav’s security guard to one of his trusted aides.
The BJP had in 2017 won all 13 seats of Bundelkhand spread across Jalaun, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba districts going to vote in the third phase.
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