The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made elaborate security and other arrangements in Uttar Pradesh for a free and fair polling in eight constituencies for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday.

Voting is scheduled to start at 7 am and will end at 6 pm.

Over 2 lakh security personnel would be deployed for the second phase polls with every booth manned by sleuths of the Central forces.

The seats going to polls in the second phase are: Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr (SC), Aligarh and Mathura.

Two Bollywood stars – Hema Malini from Mathura and Arun Govil from Meerut – will try their electoral fate in this phase.

A total of 91 candidates are in the fray in the second phase in UP including 10 women.

A maximum of 15 candidates each are trying their luck in Gautam Buddha Nagar and Mathura seats and minimum six candidates are trying their luck in Bulandshahr. 12 candidates are contesting in Amroha, eight in Meerut, seven in Baghpat, 14 each in Ghaziabad and Aligarh.

The fate of these candidates will be decided by 16777198 voters in 7797 polling stations and 17698 polling booths.

In this phase 23 per cent of the candidates have criminal cases against them and 46 % are crorepatis.

According to political experts, all eyes are on BSP MP Girish Chandra who can thwart the attempt of sitting BJP MP Bhola Singh to score a hat-trick of victory on Bulandshahr seat.

The second phase will also decide whether BSP MP Kunwar Danish Ali, who left the ‘elephant’ ride and took up ‘Panja’, will be able to do wonders again on the Amroha seat or not.

The examination of Ghaziabad BJP MLA Atul Garg, who was the Minister of State in the first term of the Yogi government, will also be held in the second phase.

State DGP Prashant Kumar said here on Thursday that security forces have reached their booths and other places to maintain strict law and order.

According to sources, 6,841 inspectors/sub-inspectors, 39,692 constables, 28,784 home guards, 60 companies of PAC and 239 companies of Central forces would be deployed in the second phase of polls.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said political parties have been dispatched to their respective booths this morning. To maintain fairness of the polls, 1,878 flying squads and 1,548 static surveillance teams would be working throughout the day in the polling areas.

Besides, 428 QRT would be working in these 8 constituencies to deal with any emergency.

The CEO said around 50 per cent of the polling booths will have webcasting to ensure transparency in the poll process.