As many as 1.61 crore voters will exercise their franchise to elect their legislators in 62 of the 403 state assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, where the first round of the seven phased poll commences on Saturday.
The gigantic election machinery has installed 18,000 electronic voting machines spread across 13 of the state's 70 districts.
According to the chief election officer A K Bishnoi, "As many as 839 candidates are in the fray for the 62 seats." He said, "Only 44 of these are women."
In an unprecedented move, the election commission has deployed nearly 60,000 security personnel belonging to Central Para Military Forces, who have been entrusted with the entire poll related security.
Interestingly, Agra has the highest number of candidates in a single contest.
"As many as 28 candidates were in the fray for the Agra seat," said the chief election officer. However the smallest contest was stated to be taking place for the Mau - Ranipur constituency in Jhansi district, where only four persons had filed nominations.
The election commission had taken special care of the physically challenged persons for whom ramps were created to facilitate easy access to the polling booths.
The seven-phased poll concludes on May 8.
The Battle for UP
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