Political parties have stepped up campaigning with their full might for the second phase of urban local bodies elections in Uttar Pradesh to be held in the remaining 38 districts, where campaigning ended on Tuesday evening.

Polling for the second phase of civic elections will be held on May 11 from 7 am to 6 pm. Counting of votes for both the phases will be taken up on May 13 morning.

The polling in the first phase was held on May 4 in 37 districts including 10 corporations where around 52 per cent of the voters used their franchise.

In the second phase, 1.92 crore voters will decide the fate of 39,146 candidates. There are 7 corporations in the second phase which are Kanpur, Aligarh, Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad,Bareilly and Ayodhya.

Leaders of both the ruling BJP and the principal Opposition Samajwadi Party have intensified campaign for their respective candidates particularly for the seven mayor posts.

In 2017 polls, BSP had won the Meerut and Aligarh mayor seats defeating the BJP while rest of the mayor seats were won by BJP.

Before the end of the campaigning on Tuesday, both Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and SP president Akhilesh Yadav addressed meetings and held road shows in Kanpur. Yogi, set a record by campaigning in most of the 75 districts solicited votes for 17 BJP candidates contesting for mayor’s post.

Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers and state ministers, sought a vote in every place. But BJP MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi adopted rebellion posture campaigning for Independents in his constituency.

BSP, which is also contesting for in all seven mayoral posts, has entrusted local leaders with the responsibility to campaign for the party.

Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday through a tweet made an appeal to voters, “Full participation of the people in the elections is necessary to get rid of the rising inflation, poverty, unemployment and other disturbing public problems. Therefore, people are appealed to vote with more enthusiasm and dedication in the second phase of UP civic elections on May 11.”

She further said, “To teach a lesson to the anti-people parties and governments, the public has a democratic right to vote, which is often used by the people of the country in elections. Support BSP by using the vote properly in the UP civic elections and force the government to be disciplined and responsible.”

AIMIM president Asauddin Owaisi also campaigned in Ghaziabad for his party’s Mayoral candidate. But no senior Congress leaders of national level were available in the electioneering in the civic polls.

The districts where polling will be held in phase 2 are Hapur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Bareilly,Badaun, Shahjahanpur,Pilibhit, Hatras,Kasganj, Etah, Aligarh, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat,Farrukhabad, Etawah, Kannauj,  Auriyya, Hamirpur,Chitrakoot ,Mahoba,Banda, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar,Barabanki,Amethi, Basti ,Sant Kabir Nagar,Sidharthnagar, Azamgarh ,Mau, Ballia, Sonbhadra, Bhadoi and Mirzapur.