Rahul Gandhi urges people to vote for freedom from fear

 

The leaders of Uttar Pradesh are urging people to vote in the first round of the election on Thursday, which covers 58 seats.

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, also made a plea to the people. "Come out and vote, get country freedom from all fear," he tweeted in Hindi.

The election is taking place in western Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP has a stronghold.

The first of seven-phase elections, covering 11 districts in western Uttar Pradesh, began at 7 a.m. in the 58 Assembly constituencies.

Shamli, Meerut, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, and Mathura are among the 11 districts where voting is taking place. Almost 2.27 crore people will use their right to vote.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won 53 of the 58 seats in 2017, will need to perform well in this phase.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) each won two of the remaining five seats, while the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) received one.

The BJP's victory in the region was not only massive, but also all-encompassing. With a victory margin of more than 20% votes, the party won 23 of the 53 seats.

If the SP and the RLD, which are running together in the 2022 elections as the main challengers to the ruling BJP, are to unseat Yogi Adityanath, they will need to make significant gains in this state.

While the SP finished second in 15 seats and third in 14, the RLD finished second in only three and third in eleven.

In 30 Assembly constituencies, the BSP came in second and the Congress came in fifth, with the BSP winning only two seats.