Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place for the second phase of polls in 3-tier Uttar Pradesh Urban Local Bodies to be held on Thursday.
Over two lakh policemen along with 35 companies of central forces and 85 companies of PAC have been deployed in the second phase of polling where 1.92 crore voters will elect candidates against 6929 posts in the three tier civic polls. There are 39146 candidates in this phase.
In 2017 polls, the BSP had won Meerut and Aligarh mayoral seats defeating the BJP while rest seats of Mayor had gone to the BJP kitty.
The polling will be held between 7 AM and 6 PM.
The polling of the first phase in 37 districts including 10 mayors post were held on May 4 when around 52 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Votes of both the phases will be counted on May 13.
However, tension brewed up in several places due to clashes between supporters of the candidates on the eve of yhe second phase polling.
In Gauriganj under Amethi district, SP MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh clashed with the husband of BJP candidate contesting for the chairman post.The clash took place inside the Gauriganj police station on Wednesday morning.
Similar incident of minor clashes were reported from Ayodhya,Meerut, Shahjahanpur and Kanpur Dehat districts.
State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar told The Statesman here on Wednesday that all arrangements for free and fair polls have been made.
He said that polling parties would reach the booth by tonight so that polling could be started tomorrow on time. While the voting for all the 7 corporations would be held through EVMs, the polling in Nagar Panchayat and Nagar Palika would be held through traditional ballot papers.
The polling for the posts of Mayor will be held on Thursday in Kanpur, Aligarh, Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Ayodhya.
Districts going to polls in the second phase 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.