Uttar Pradesh civic polls 2017: Dates announced, voting in 3 phases

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh will have civic polls in three phases from November 22, making it the first electoral test for the ruling BJP which stormed to power in the Assembly elections with a massive mandate earlier this year. "As per the schedule, 24 districts will go to polls on November 22, 25 districts on November 26, and 26 districts on November 29," State Election Commissioner SK Agarwal told reporters here. He said no central para-military force would be used for exercise, which will be conducted by the state police alone. "Counting of votes polled for 16 nagar nigam, 118 nagar palika parishad and 438 nagar panchyat will be done December one," he said. Agarwal said 3.32 crore voters will be eligible to cast their ballots at 36,269 polling booths and 11,389 polling stations. Giving phase-wise details, he said the first phase will cover 24 districts in which 230 local bodies, spread over 4,095 wards, will got to polls. For this phase, there will be 3,731 polling centres and 11,683 polling booths with total over 1.09 crore voters. The second phase will cover 25 districts having 189 local bodies covering 3,601 wards. The polls will be held at 13,776 polling booths to be set up for 1.29 crore voters, he said. In the third and last phases, 26 districts will go to polls in which there are 233 local bodies spread over 4,299 wards. For this phase, there will be 10,810 polling booths for over 94 lakh voters. These polls will mark the first test for the Yogi Adityanath government which came to power in March, with the BJP getting a landslide victory.