M A I N   N E W S

UP phase 2 poll campaign ends

Lucknow, February 16
Campaigning for the second phase of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, which will see 145 seats in the state’s central districts going to the polls on Monday, ended at 5 p.m. this evening.

Among crucial segments in the second phase are the five Assembly constituencies of the state Capital, which is represented by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Lok Sabha.

A galaxy of political heavyweights, including Prime Minister Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani from the BJP, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Laloo Prasad Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP vice-president Mayawati and Lok Janshakti Party president Ramvilas Paswan, made whirlwind tours of the constituencies going to the polls.

Also seen electioneering along with the leaders were bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan (for the Samajwadi Party), Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna and Hema Malini (BJP) and Govinda and Reena Roy (Congress).

A total of 1958 candidates are in fray for the second phase, which will see about 30.5 million persons exercise their franchise at 42,004 polling stations, 16,385 of which have been identified as “sensitive”.

Prominent candidates whose fate would be sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) include one former Chief Minister and a host of state ministers.

Rashtriya Kranti Party president and former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is a candidate for the Atrauli seat. Mr Kalyan Singh is also contesting for the Dibai seat where polling had already been completed in the first phase along with 92 seats on Thursday.

State Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon (Lucknow-West), Cooperative Minister Ram Kumar Verma (Nighasan), State Social Welfare Minister Premlala Katiyar (Kalyanpur), and Women Development Minister Prabha Dwivedi (Farrukhabad) are the prominent ministers in the fray while the Opposition candidates include senior Congress leaders Luis Khursheed (Kayamganj) and Ranjana Vajpayee (Biswan), and Samajwadi Party leaders Dhani Ram Verma (Bidhuna), Shiv Pal Singh Yadav (Jaswantnagar) and Naresh Agarwal (Hardoi). UNI

Repolling peaceful in Manipur, Punjab

New Delhi, February 16
Repolling was today held at 36 polling stations spread over 17 Assembly constituencies of Punjab and Manipur. The repolling at all places passed off peacefully, official sources said. In Manipur repolling was held at 31 polling stations spread over 12 constituencies in the valley districts of East and West Imphal, Thoubal and Bishenpur. Repolling was also held at one polling station each in Phillaur, Mahilpur, Qadian, Valtoha and Guru Har Sahai assembly constituencies of Punjab. PTI