Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2017

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All 403 seats of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly 202 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   File:BJP election symbol.svg Leader Akhilesh Yadav Mayawati Not Declared Party SP BSP BJP Leader's seat MLC None - Last election 224, 29.13% 80, 25.91%[1] 47, 15% Seats before 97 206 51   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Alliance with Samajwadi Party Jayant Chaudhary Party INC RLD Leader's seat None None Last election 28, 11.63% 09, 2.33% Seats before 22 10
Chief Minister before election Akhilesh Yadav Samajwadi Party Elected Chief Minister TBD

The 17th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election will be held from February 11 to March 8, 2017 in 7 phases. In the previous election in 2012, the Samajwadi Party won a majority and formed government in the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav.

Background

Electoral process changes

In January 2016, the Election Commission of India published updated electoral rolls in all 403 assembly segments.^[2] In July 2016, Election Commission decided to increase the number of polling booths in Uttar Pradesh for the 2017 Assembly elections. New polling centres will be planned in the constituencies having more than 1,500 registered voters as well as polling booths in six constituencies of Muzaffarnagar, Budhana, Purkazi, Khatoli, Charthawal and Midanpur to be raised from 1,769 to 1,819 booths.^[3][4] Voter assistance booths would be set up and photo slip of voters in a new design would be sent to them. First time, the Form-2B would contain the photograph of the candidates and their nationality.

Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines will be used along with EVM in 20 assembly constituencies covering 14 districts including Varanasi,^[5] Ghaziabad^[6] and Bareilly constituency.^[7][8]

As per the special summary revision of electoral rolls, there are a total of 14.05 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh as of January 2015.^[10]

Caste and religion data

As per 2011 census, Dalits constitute 21.1% of Uttar Pradesh population.^[11][12][13] Mallah community is divided in 27 sub-castes. Other Backward Classes (OBCs) constitute 40% of U.P population.^{[14][15][16][17]} There are 200-odd non-Yadav OBCs in U.P. In Uttar Pradesh, Muslims are divided into 68 castes and sub-castes, 35 of them are OBCs. Forward castes constitute around 19% of Uttar Pradesh population,^[18] in which Brahmins are 10% and Thakurs are 7.6%.^[19][20] For accurate caste population data in India, Government of India has not publicly released Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 caste population data for every single non-SC/ST castes (General castes, OBC/EBCs) in India.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

Election issues

The most important issue is said to be law and order of the state^[31][32] and as in every election caste and religion will play the key reasons for voters.^[33] However, the Supreme Court ruled that prohibited use of religion, caste or language to solicit votes and forbade candidates from communal politics.^[34]

Schedule

Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held between 11 February to 8 March 2017. The term of the present government will end on 27 May 2017.^[35]

On 4 January 2017, The Election Commission of India announced the election schedule to the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh along with the other four state (Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand) which are due for an election. The entire election is scheduled into 7 phases.

Opinion polls

Various organisations/agencies have been conducting opinions polls to predict voter intentions in the upcoming legislative assembly elections.

See also

• 2017 elections in India

References

External links

• Chief Electoral Officer Uttar Pradesh