As many as 1.61 crore voters will exercise their franchise to elect their legislators in 62 of the 403 state assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, where the first round of the seven phased poll commences on Saturday.
The gigantic election machinery has installed 18,000 electronic voting machines spread across 13 of the state's 70 districts.
According to the chief election officer A K Bishnoi, "As many as 839 candidates are in the fray for the 62 seats." He said, "Only 44 of these are women."
In an unprecedented move, the election commission has deployed nearly 60,000 security personnel belonging to Central Para Military
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