Campaign Election 2012 U.P

The INC's Rahul Gandhi started his campaign on 14 November, 2011 before the announcement of the election phases, while Mulayam Singh Yadav started his campaign on 8 January with criticism of the ruling BSP for "corruption and atrocities on people.Rahul Gandhi toured one of the most impoverished area of the country on 17 January, Bundelkhand in Lalitpur. He also visited Mauranipur,
Chirgaon, Jhansi and Mahoba, where he was reportedly shown black flags over the issue of black money. He promised to bring change, while also questioning the BSP government's alleged corruption in the MGNREGA scheme.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a rally in Kanpur on 17 February and alleged that the UP government is not cooperating with the national government in regards to infrastructure development despite UP receiving five times the funds they demanded.

The BJP formally began its campaign on 10 January, but would start hosting public meeting 10 days later. Party leaders from outside UP had been called in to campaign, though many refused to show support for candidates with corruption allegations. These included former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, former PM-candidate and Home Minister MP Lal Krishna Advani, MPSushma Swaraj, former Law Minister MP Arun Jaitley. UP MP Murli Manohar Joshi, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda, Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi, former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Narendra Singh Tomar, party deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde, party deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha SS Ahluwalia, party Muslim member Shahnawaz Hussain, party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, MP Shatrughan Sinha, MP Hema Malini, MP Smriti Irani, MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar, Ramlal, former Foreign Minister MP Yashwant Sinha, former Madhya Pradesh CM and re-inductee into the party Uma Bharti, UP MP Varun Gandhi, Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Kesarinath Tripathi, Ramnath Kovind, Saudan Singh and Radha Mohan Singh. On 16 January, national BJP President Nitin Gadkari released the party manifesto for the election in Lucknow. Part of its promises included creating 1.5 crore jobs within five years, as well providing rice and wheat at a subsidised Rs. 3 and Rs. 2 per kilogramme, respectively.It also included a promise to probe alleged cases of corruption during the tenure of the BSP government.On 18 January, they opted to field Uma Bharti from the Charkari constituency in Mahoba.

Incumbent CM Mayawati began her campaign on 27 January at a rally in Bijnor.On 15 January, she released the BSP's list of candidates for all the 403 constituencies. The list included 88 candidates belonging to SCs, 113 from OBCs, 85 religious minorities and 117 upper castes, out of which 74 are Brahmins. 

On 20 January, the Samajwadi Party released its electoral manifesto in Lucknow which included promising reservation for the minorities, a ban on land acquisition and loans of four percent interest to small farmers.^{dead link} Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav got an endorsement from the Shahi Imam of New Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari, who had appealed to Muslim voters to vote for the SP and alleged that the INC had regressed UP's fortunes.

The anti-corruption group Team Anna also decided to campaign in four of the five provinces that are holding Vidhan Sabha elections, except Manipur; however they said that they would not do so in favour of or against any particular party. They started their campaign in Haridwar on 21 January.

Individual candidates

After being fired from the BSP for corruption, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Badshah Singh and Awdhesh Verma joined the BJP. Kushwaha has wanted to join the INC but was blocked by Rahul Gandhi, who criticised the BJP for giving them tickets. Additionally, Daddan Mishra also resigned from the BSP after being denied a ticket to run in the election and consequently joined the BJP.