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Electioneering gathers momentum in U.P. areas

Tight security arrangements in place: Police

Photo: Subir Roy

LATEST: An expert explaining the working of the new tamper-proof electronic voting machines with Braille facility in Lucknow on Friday to be used during the first phase of U.P. elections.

Kanpur: Election campaign has gathered momentum here with the polling day for the first phase of Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh drawing nearer, even as the district administration is busy making preparations for the crucial elections.

Polling for ten Assembly seats in the region and Bilhaur Lok Sabha by-poll is scheduled to take place on April 7. Various political parties have launched their campaign in which the BJP took a lead as former party president M. Venkaiah Naidu arrived here yesterday to review poll preparations. He held a meeting with the party workers to decide strategy.

The Bahujan Samaj Party cadres are expecting that their campaign would receive a boost with party chief Mayawati addressing a rally at Phoolbagh grounds on Saturday.

The Congress would launch their campaign soon. The road show by Rahul Gandhi is likely on April 3 or 4, party sources said.

However, dissidents are a cause for concern for the Congress and the BJP.

Former MLA and local Congress leader Bhoodhar Narayan Mishra raised questions over distribution of tickets and resigned from Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee membership, while the BJP dissidents staged a demonstration yesterday to express their unhappiness.

Meanwhile, tight security arrangements are being made for the polls. Superintendent of Police Gulab Singh said, "The first batch of six companies of para-military forces from Delhi were to reach the city by special train this evening."

Singh said that while four companies would be deployed in Kanpur cantonment and Govindnagar constituencies, the remaining would be sent for rural constituencies of Bilhaur and Sarsaul constituencies.

Counting of votes in the ten Assembly seats would take place on May 11. -- PTI

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