Candidate numbers falling in successive UP elections

Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly elections have been witnessing a gradual fall in the number of candidates over the years.

Against the total contestants, belonging to different political parties as well as Independents, numbering 6,839 in 2012 UP Assembly polls, the respective numbers dwindled to 4,853 and 4,441 in the 2017 and 2022 elections.

Thus, compared to the 2012 UP polls, there has been a massive fall of 35 per cent with regard to the candidature in the current 2022 elections.

According to political analysts, the plausible reason for the successive dip in the pool of candidates is the zealous pre-poll alliances sewed up by the big political parties to prevent the division of votes.

Besides, the trend of fielding dummy candidates by parties to either divide the opposition votes or confuse the electorate in particular Assembly segments is also subsiding in the state political firmament. Dummy candidates have similar-sounding names to confuse the voters.

In the 2002 and 2007 UP Assembly polls, the number of total candidates stood at 5,533 and 6,086 respectively.

Moreover, due to the lesser number of candidates in the 2022 UP polls, the imperative of deploying more than one electronic voting machine (EVM) in an assembly segment arose in only four constituencies. An individual EVM can cater to a maximum of 16 candidates only.

Interestingly, the number of constituencies requiring more than one ballot unit was 227 and 37 in the 2012 and 2017 UP assembly elections respectively.

Meanwhile, the Karhal seat in the Mainpuri district has the lowest number of candidates at three. Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from this seat while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament SP Singh Baghel is giving him competition in this virtual Yadav belt.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), there are more than 150 million registered voters in UP, which has the country’s highest assembly constituencies numbering 403.

UP assembly elections have been scheduled in seven rounds, viz. Feb 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7. The counting of votes will be done on March 10.