The Election Commission said on Wednesday that 59 assembly constituencies spread over nine districts of Uttar Pradesh recorded an average of 49.89 per cent polling till 3 pm on Wednesday.
Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. The districts where polling is being held include Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur. This is the fourth election in the state in seven phases of assembly elections. A total of 624 candidates are in the fray in this phase of polling. According to the Election Commission, Pilibhit has 54.83 percent, Kheri 52.92 percent, Sitapur 50.33 percent, Hardoi 46.29 percent, Unnao 47.29 percent, Lucknow 47.62 percent, Rae Bareli 50.84 percent, Banda 50.08 percent and Fatehpur 52.60 percent. Vote cast.
On the instructions of the Election Commission, about 64.69 percent votes were cast till 3 pm in the re-polling held at polling booth number 266 of Karhal assembly seat of Mainpuri district. In Karhal, from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav is pitted against Union minister and BJP’s SP Singh Baghel, the third phase of polling was held on February 20. According to Election Commission officials, polling is going on peacefully. However, the Samajwadi Party has demanded action alleging some irregularities in some areas of Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi and Sitapur. In Lucknow, BSP president Mayawati, state minister Brijesh Pathak and several senior officials were among the early voters.
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In many places, as soon as the voting started, morning walkers came to cast their votes with voting slips. According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people, including 1.14 crore males and 99.3 lakh females, are eligible to vote, for whom 24,643 polling stations and 13,817 polling stations have been set up in this phase. Lakhimpur Kheri – which is for voting in nine districts – is the place where four farmers were allegedly crushed to death by cars carrying BJP workers last year. Eight people, including farmers, were killed in the violence there on October 3.
Of the 59 seats in these districts, in the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP had 51, the Samajwadi Party four, the Bahujan Samaj Party three and the remaining one went to the BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). In 2017 these seats saw a turnout of 62.55 per cent, while it was 60.03 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Prominent candidates for this phase include Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, SP’s national spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria, former SP minister Abhishek Mishra, former Deputy Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Nitin Agarwal and Aditi Singh.
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