New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS): The Election Commission on Friday announced biennial election for 36 constituencies of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in two phases, on March 3 and 7.

The term of 36 sitting members of the state legislature's upper house from 35 local authorities' constituencies is going to expire on March 7.

According to the EC, the notification for the first phase will be issued on February 4, the last date of making nominations will be February 11, scrutiny of nominations will be on February 14, and the last date of the withdrawal of candidature will be on February 16.

For the second phase, the notification will be issued on February 10, last date of making nominations will be February 17, scrutiny of nominations will be on February 18, and last date for withdrawal of candidatures will be February 21.

The counting of the votes will be held on March 12 as the poll process has to be completed by March 15.

The Model Code of Conduct for the election will come into force with immediate effect in the concerned constituency. The poll panel also asked the UP Chief Secretary to depute a senior officer to ensure that the extant instructions regarding Covid containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the election.

During the first phase, the local authorities of Moradabad-Bijnor, Rampur-Bareilly, Budaun, Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow-Unnao, Rae-Bareli, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Bahraich, Azamgarh-Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Varanasi and Mirzapur-Sonbhadra will elect one candidate from each constituencies.

In the second phase, the local authorities of Gonda, Faizabad, Basti-Siddharth Nagar, Gorakhpur-Maharajganj, Deoria and Ballia will be going for polls.