New Delhi: The Assembly poll process in Uttar Pradesh is set to kick off on Tuesday when the poll notification for the first phase of polling for 62 seats will be issued by the state governor.
The polling for the first phase will be held on April 7. The UP Assembly polls will be held in seven phases.
In all likelihood, the polls will witness a four-cornered contest, with the incumbent Samajwadi Party making a valiant effort to retain power and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party trying to emerge as the single largest party. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress will be the two other main contenders in the race.
The BJP, buoyed by recent electoral successes in Punjab and Uttarakhand, is going all out to regain its lost ground in the Hindi heartland while the Congress is making frantic efforts to become a key player in the event of a hung Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has put in place a strong mechanism to ensure free, fair and violence-free elections in the state.
Election Commission sources say the challenge in Uttar Pradesh was greater than that for the Assembly polls in West Bengal or Bihar and the commission was, therefore, leaving nothing to chance.
The commission has sought a report by Tuesday from the state government about persons who have been provided with state security and candidates with criminal cases pending against them.
The commission has also instructed authorities in Uttar Pradesh to monitor arms licenses and keep an eye on people on parole to address the problem of threats and intimidation of voters during the polls.
Additional forces are likely to be deployed along the Indo-Nepal border during the polls. The poll panel has actively involved divisional commissioners and booth-level officers to maximise the coverage of Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) and to revise the electoral rolls, they said.
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