Blazing guns fall silent as campaign ends for UP phase 2, U’khand polls
LUCKNOW/DEHRADUN: Campaigning drew to a close on Monday evening in 67 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh for the second phase of elections as well as in 69 seats in Uttarakhand for the polls on February 15.
The high-voltage campaigning saw the top brass of the main parties in fray addressing a slew of rallies, roadshows and public meetings in both the states.
Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a triangular contest among Samajwadi Party, Congress and BSP while the fight in Uttarakhand is an interesting one as about a dozen rebel candidates in fray as Inde- pendents may upset the calculations of Congress and BJP which have been traditionally the two main contenders for power in the state.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah championed the cause of the saffron party during the campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, the Sp-congress alliance’s charge was spearheaded by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, besides other leaders of the respective parties.
BSP supremo Mayawati wooed the voters addressing one rally after another all by herself, with senior party leader S C Misra chipping in at certain places.
The 67 constituencies in the state are spread across 11 districts -- Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Bareilly, Amroha, Pilibhit, Kheri, Shahjahanpur and Badaun. Of the seats at stake, ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) had won 34 in 2012, followed by BSP 18, BJP 10, Congress 3 and others 2.