Assembly Election 2022: UP and Punjab is voting today, 10 key points

In the third phase, voting is underway in Uttar Pradesh's 59 constituencies spread across 16 districts today in the seven-phase Assembly Elections 2022. This is by far the most crucial round of polling. Voting started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

Polling is happening in 16 crucial districts - Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba. Samajwadi Party supremo and Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will battle it out from the Karhal seat against BJP candidate and Union minister SP Singh Baghel.

A total of 627 candidates are in the fray in the third phase, while over 20 million people are eligible to vote. 

Punjab is expected to witness a contest among the ruling Congress, AAP, SAD-BSP alliance, BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha. Over 2.14 crore voters will decide the fate of 1,304 candidates including 93 women. The voting will begin at 8 am and continue till 6 pm.

Read | Assembly Elections 2022: Punjab starts phase 1, Uttar Pradesh begins phase 3 of polls today

10 key points related to polling

All eyes are on UP's Karhal seat from Mainpuri, the stronghold of the Yadav family. Akhilesh Yadav is contesting his first state elections from this seat. He will be contesting against BJP's SP Singh Baghel who is an Union Minister.

Samajwadi Party has lost from Uttar Pradesh's Karhal seat just once since the party's inception in 1992.

In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP got 49 of these 59 seats while the Samajwadi Party won nine. The Congress won one seat and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) lost all seats. 

Other prominent candidates include Shivpal Singh Yadav (Jaswantnagar), BJP's Satish Mahana (Maharajpur in Kanpur), Ramveer Upadhayay (Sadabad in Hathras), Asim Arun (Kannauj Sadar) and Congress' Louise Khurshid (Farrukhabad Sadar), wife of former Union Minister Salman Khurshid.

After phase three, nearly half of UP's 403 assembly seats would have voted. 172 seats will finish polling after this phase.

Read | UP Elections 2022 Phase 3: Fate of Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav to be decided today as voting begins for 59 seats

Kanpur is one of the state's biggest cities and its business powerhouse. BJP was dominant on this seat in the last elections.

Punjab is voting in a single phase to elect 117 members to the state assembly. 

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress ended the SAD-BJP combine's 10-year-regime by winning 77 seats. AAP managed to win 20 seats while the SAD-BJP had won 18. Two seats went to the Lok Insaaf Party.

The multi-cornered contest will see the BJP contesting without its long time ally Akali Dal. Captain Amarinder Singh, who was unceremoniously removed as Chief Minister last year, has also floated his own party, Punjab Lok Congress, and has joined hands with the BJP. The Aam Aadmi Party is the other major challenger to Congress. 

Prominent faces in Punjab are Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi from the Chamkaur Sahib seat, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu against SAD's Bikram Singh Majithia from the Amritsar East seat, Captain Amarinder Singh from Patiala, Sukhbir Singh Badal from the Jalalabad Assembly constituency, Parkash Singh Badal from the Lambi seat, Ganieve Kaur Majithia from the Majitha seat and Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Bathinda seat.