Lucknow, In Uttar Pradesh, voting for the second and final phase of urban local body elections started amidst tight security. In the second phase, the polling is being held in 38 districts across 8 divisions.
These divisions are Aligarh, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Basti, Chitrakoot, Kanpur and Mirzapur.
In the first leg, on the other hand, the polling was held on May 4, and voters from 37 districts got to exercise their right to vote.
Counting will be held on Saturday. The polling in the second phase started from 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
Akashvani correspondent reports, According to the State Election Commission (SEC), Uttar Pradesh, over 1.96 crore voters are expected to decide the fate of 39146 poll aspirants during this phase. Seven municipal corporations including Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Kanpur Nagar and Ayodhya will elect their mayors.
Shahjahanpur will vote for the first time for the mayor of its municipal corporation and the fight here has become interesting as Samajwadi party nominee for the Mayor post switch sides and joined BJP to become it’s mayor candidate.
Heavy security arrangements are in place for these elections. 35 companies of CAPF have been deployed for free and fair elections.
On May 4, in the first phase, an average 52% voter turnout was recorded, as per the State Election Commision data. This is 5.52% less than the turnout for the first phase in 2017.