60% Voting In 1st Phase Of UP Polls, Slightly Lower Than 2017: 10 Points

UP Election 2022: The big challenger of the BJP is the rainbow coalition led by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

UP Election: The BJP won 91% of the 58 seats in the region in the 2017 elections

New Delhi: The first of the seven-phase polling in Uttar Pradesh -- said to be the semi-final before the general election of 2024 -- ended peacefully on Thursday. 60.17% people voted for the 58 seats in western UP, a shade lower than the 63.5% in 2017.

  1. There were some complaints of EVM and VVPAT malfunction earlier in the day. Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said they were addressed immediately.
  2. Among the prominent candidates in this phase were 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.  
  3. Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary faced backlash after saying he may skip voting because of election rallies. He later said he would vote in the evening at his constituency in Mathura, but failed to return in time from Bijnor, where he was campaigning with ally Akhilesh Yadav.
  4. Their combine is seen as the big challenger to the Yogi Adityanath government. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has augmented his Muslim-Yadav support base with small parties have a following among the Other Backward Classes.
  5. In Bijnor on Thursday, the two leaders took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that Uttar Pradesh has seen "do ladke" before. "Whether you have seen it earlier or not, watch them this time," Mr Yadav retorted. "These two are sons of farmers and the farmers this time consider this election one that involves their honour," he said.
  6. While the BJP won 91 per cent of the 58 seats in the region in 2017, the question of a backlash by farmers has kept many on tenterhooks. After farmer leader Rakesh Tikait gave a call to punish the BJP, it was echoed by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions.
  7. While the BJP won in 2017 with a sweeping mandate, this election is expected to be a referendum on the government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was criticised over his handling of the second wave of Covid as images of bodies floating down the Ganga shocked the nation.
  8. Also in the running are the Congress led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, whose supporters can influence the results across 20 seats.
  9. The area - where voting patterns had largely changed since the Muzaffarnagar violence of 2013 -- has seen a polarised campaign. The BJP's chief strategist Amit Shah had campaigned in Kairana, the Ground Zero of an alleged Hindu exodus in 2016. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has repeatedly accused the opposition Samajwadi Party of being supporters of Pakistan.
  10. The counting of votes will be held on March 10. Results for election in four other states -- Goa, Manipur, Punjab, and Uttarakhand -- will also be announced the same day.

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