Nominations begin for final phase of Uttar Pradesh polls

LUCKNOW: The nominations for the seventh and final phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls started today with the issuance of notification for 40 assembly seats spread across seven districts.

"The notification for seventh and final phase of polls has been issued today and nominations have started", the office of the UP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

The polling on these seats will be held on March 8.

Assembly seats in the three naxal-affected districts of Sonebhadra, Mirzapur and Chandauli, besides constituencies in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha seat Varanasi will go to polls.

The other districts going to poll in this phase are Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Bhadoi.

The nominations will continue till February 16 and candidates can file the papers on the working days. The scrutiny of papers would be done on February 17 while candidates can withdraw their papers till February 20.

The counting of votes of all seven phases of 403 assembly seats would be taken up on March 11.

As per the CEO's office, there are 1.41 crore eligible voters, including 64.76 lakh women, who will cast their votes in 14,458 polling booths in this phase.

In the 2012 assembly polls, out of these 40 seats, 23 went to SP, 5 to BSP, 4 to BJP, 3 to Congress and 5 to others.