Chennai: Fifty-five constituencies spread across nine districts of Uttar Pradesh are voting in the second phase polling today, amid an increasingly shrill, polarised campaign.

Polling is also being held in two other BJP-ruled States, Goa and Uttarakhand. According to reports, brisk voting were being witnessed in all three States.

Chief Ministers Pramod Sawant and Pushkar Singh Dhami, former CM Harish Rawat and jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan among the prominent candidates in the fray. It is a high-stakes election for the ruling BJP and a litmus test for the Modi government’s policies that have been targeted by Congress, AAP and other opposition parties during their campaign.

The coastal state of Goa, with over 11 lakh voters, has 301 candidates contesting from 40 Assembly seats, while in Uttarakhand, which has an electorate of 81 lakh, 632 candidates, including 152 independents, are fighting from 70 seats.

The second phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh was taking place in the Saharanpur district of the West sub-region (the only district of the sub-region yet to vote) and seven districts of the Rohilkhand sub-region, according to a classification of districts by the Trivedi Centre for Political Data.

Meanwhile, confident that the people of UP will help the BJP retain power, CM Yogi Adityanath said: ‘Under the PM’s leadership and with people’s blessings, the double-engine government will return to power in UP. This election has already moved towards 80 vs 20. A gloomy environment prevails in SP, BSP and Congress camps after the first phase of polls. BJP is achieving its 300-mark target.’