Lucknow/UNI: Voting for the first phase of local body elections in Uttar Pradesh began on Thursday amid tight security arrangements.

In this phase, voting is being held in 37 districts of nine divisions.

Polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. In the first phase, voting for the post of mayor in 10 municipal corporations is being done through EVMs, while voting for 104 municipal council presidents and 276 Nagar panchayat presidents, 830 Councilors, 2,776 municipal members and 3,682 Nagar panchayat members is being held through ballot papers.

In the first phase, 10 Councilors, one zila panchayat and one municipality chairperson and 73 members have already been elected unopposed.

The nine divisions covered in this phase are Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Devipatan.