UP polls: EC declares holiday in all districts going to election in Phase 1

Additional chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh BD Ram Tiwari informed on Wednesday that there will be a holiday in all districts going to polls in the first phase of assembly elections in the state on Thursday so that citizens can exercise their right to vote.

"There will be a holiday in all eleven districts of Western Uttar Pradesh which are set to go to polls so that citizens can exercise their right to vote," said Tiwari while talking to ANI.

Tiwari said that all the preparations have been made for the first phase of the polls and all the polling parties have left for their respective polling centers.

"Over 2.28 crore people will exercise their right to vote in the first phase. For this, 26,027 booths and 10,853 polling centers have been set up," he added.

Tiwari said that those citizens who have their names in the electoral rolls but have lost their voter ID cards can still exercise their voting rights by showing other 12 photo identity cards like Aadhaar card, MNREGA job card, passbooks, passport, service ID, PAN card and unique disability cards.

He appealed to the public to exercise their right to vote.

The first phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh will take place on February 10.

The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to polls in seven phases on February 10, February 14, February 20, February 23, February 27, March 3 and March 7.

The counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.