In peaceful first phase, 64% polling recorded in U.P.

73 constituencies in western region voted for 839 candidates

February 11, 2017 09:07 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:58 pm IST - Meerut

AWAITING THEIR TURN: Voters at a polling booth in Pasonda village, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday.

AWAITING THEIR TURN: Voters at a polling booth in Pasonda village, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday.

A turnout of 64.22% was reported in the largely incident-free first phase of polling on Saturday for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The Election Commission did not give the figures of voter turnout in the corresponding seats in 2012, but said the percentage recorded was higher than the 58.62% overall turnout recorded in the State then.

According to ADG (Law and Order) Daljeet Singh, polling passed off peacefully without any major incidents of violence in any of the 73 constituencies spread across 15 districts of western U.P. Over two lakh policemen were deployed for the polls.

In this first phase, about 2.59 crore voters — 1,42,76,128 male and 1,17,76,308 female — were eligible to vote for 839 candidates, including 77 women. Around 20% of the candidates have criminal cases registered against them. Of the 14,514 polling booths, 5,140 were identified as hyper-sensitive.

Four-cornered fight

While the elections were seen as a triangular contest between the BJP, the BSP and the SP, Ajit Singh’s RLD has made it four-cornered contest with renewed support from its traditional vote bank of Jats, reportedly disenchanted with the BJP for its failure to fulfil promises of reservation. Of the total 73 seats, the SP had won 24, the BSP 23, the BJP 12, the RLD 9 and the Congress 5 seats in 2012. However, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw a complete swing in favour of the BJP which won all 15 seats from the 15 districts.

Among the first time candidates who are being watched closely include Pankaj Singh, son of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who is contesting as a BJP candidate from Noida, and Shrikant Sharma, contesting from Mathura, and Mriganka Singh, daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh, contesting from Kairana.

Gagan Som, brother of the riot accused BJP leader Sangeet Som who is defending his seat Sardhana, was booked under relevant Sections of the IPC for carrying a pistol in a polling booth while voting was going on in Sardhana. Sangeet Som is facing a tough battle this time in a triangular contest with Imran Quraishi of the BSP and Atul Pradhan of the SP-Congress alliance.

Even though there were some minor technical problems in the Electronic Voting Machines in some booths, Chief Electoral Officer T. Venkatesh told journalists that voting went off peacefully.

Polling ended at 5 p.m., but there were many booths where people were standing in queue even then and that is why they were allowed to vote.

With 67.12%, the communally sensitive Shamli recorded the highest voting among the 15 districts which went to the polls in the first phase. Ghaziabad saw the lowest voting with just 58.10%. Voting was 66% in Meerut, 65.50% in Muzaffarnagar, 65.67% in Hapur, 65.39% in Mathura, 64.83% in Kasganj, 64.10% in Kasganj, 59.17% in Gautam Buddh Nagar, 63.59% in Firozabad, 64.93% in Etah, 64.64% in Bulandshahr, 64.99% in Baghpat, 64.66% in Aligarh and 63.88% in Agra.

The second phase of polling in 67 seats will be held on February 15. The seven-phase elections will end on March 8. Counting will be done on March 11.

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