UP Election: Fifth Phase Underway, Acid Test for Mulayam

February 23, 2012 5:27 AM EST

Polling is underway in Uttar Pradesh for the fifth phase of election in the heartland state on Thursday where 49 seats are up for grabs in this round spread across 13 districts.

While the last two phases were crucial for the Gandhi-Nehru clan, this is one round which is an acid test for Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since Uma Bharati has also thrown her hat in the ring in this phase.

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Till 9 am in the morning in the first two hours 9.88 percent of the total over 1.56 crore voters cast their ballots in 17267 polling stations.

The 13 districts where polling is underway are Firozabad, Kanshiram Nagar, Etah, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya, Ramabainagar, Kanpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba.

This is a round crucial for both the SP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BJP feisty woman leader Uma Bharati, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, is in the fray in this round fighting the polls from Charkhari seat in Mahoba district.

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Former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh is keeping his fingers crossed in this round since Jan Kranti Party is fighting polls in various seats.

In this phase, the backward Bundelkhand region (Etah district) is witnessing polls too. The backward region is a stronghold of Samajwadi Party but in a byelection in 2009, one crucial seat was wrested from them by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is the brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav, is seeking his re-election from Jaswantnagar seat in Etah.

Kalyan Singh also has good influence in Etah.

Uttar Pradesh will go to vote in two more stages on Feb 28 and Mar 3.

Counting of votes is on March 6 along with all four other states that are going to elections this year.