UP CM Yogi Adityanath campaigning in Uttarakhand ahead of the polls. The elections will be a litmus test for the ruling BJP in UP, Uttarakhand and Goa ((Photo: Twitter/@BJP4UK)
In Uttarakhand, important candidates whose fate is to be decided in these polls include Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya besides state BJP president Madan Kaushik. Prominent candidates from the Congress include former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal and Leader of Opposition in the fourth assembly Pritam Singh.
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The prominent candidates in Goa include Chief Minister Pramod Sawant (BJP), Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat (Congress), former CMs Churchill Alemao (TMC), Ravi Naik (BJP), Laxmikant Parsekar (independent), former deputy CMs Vijai Sardesai (GFP) and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP), late CM Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar and AAP’s CM face Amit Paleker.
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In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Of the 55 seats going to polls in this phase, the BJP had won 38 in 2017, while the Samajwadi Party had bagged 15 and the Congress two. The SP and the Congress had contested the last Assembly election in an alliance. The areas going to the polls in this phase have a sizeable Muslim population influenced by religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deoband sects and are considered to be the strongholds of the Samajwadi Party.
The prominent faces in the fray in this phase include Dharam Singh Saini, a BJP state minister who had switched to the SP. SP’s Azam Khan has been fielded from his stronghold Rampur seat, while Saini is trying his luck from the Nakud Assembly segment. Khan is a member of Lok Sabha from Rampur.