Lucknow, Dec 2 (IANS): The process for holding urban local bodies' elections in Uttar Pradesh has begun with the announcement of the list of ward reservation in 48 of the total 75 districts by the state urban development department.

The districts include Lucknow for which the reservation list of 110 wards has been issued by principal secretary, urban development, Amrit Abhijat.

The reservation exercise in the municipal wards and mayor seats in municipal corporations and chairpersons in nagar panchayats and palika parishads is a key requirement for conducting the urban local body polls. The local body polls are expected to be held this month.

The reservation list currently is open to change as the department has given a week's time for filing objections to the ward reservation.

"Anyone wanting to file objections or give any suggestion would be able to do so by routing them through the district magistrates," officials said.

Apart from Lucknow, the other 47 districts for which ward reservation has been announced include Rae Bareli, Amethi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Amroha, Amethi, Ayodhya, Aligarh, Unnao, Etah, Auraiyya, Kanpur Dehat, Kasganj, Kushinagar, Kaushambhi, Ghaziabad and Ghazipur.

The reservation schedule has also been released for wards in Jaunpur, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur, Basti, Maharajganj, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Sambhal, Siddharth Nagar, Sultanpur, Sonbhadra, Hamirpur, Hathras and Hapur.

The reservation schedule for remaining wards in other districts would be released soon, officials said.

There are 763 urban local bodies, including 17 municipal corporations, 200 nagar palika parishads and 546 nagar panchayats in the state.

The BJP has maximum mayors across the state, followed by the BSP. The Samajwadi Party has presence in nagar palika parishads and nagar panchayats.