Sixty-seven seats in eleven districts went to polls in the second phase of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
According to the Election Commission, 65.5% polling was registered till 5 p.m. in Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Bareilly, Amroha, Pilibhit, Kheri, Shahjahanpur and Badaun.
Saharanpur registered 70% polling, Amroha 69, Bijnor 67, Moradabad 65, Badau 60, Pilibhit 65.62, Lakhimpur Kheri 65, Sambhal 65, Rampur 61.5, Bareilly 62.17 and Shahjahanpur saw 62% voting.
Chief Electoral Officer T. Venkatesh told the media that polling was peaceful amid tight security. He said the average turnout was over 65%.
The turnout in the first phase was 64.2, a 3% increase than what it was in the first phase of the 2012 Assembly polls.
According to the EC, about 2.28 crore voters, including over 1.04 crore women, are eligible to cast their ballots in 14,771 polling centres and 23,693 polling stations in the second of the seven-phase polling.
The important contestants in this phase include seven-time MLA Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party from Rampur, his son Abdullah Azam from Suar, Jitin Prasada of the Congress from Tilhar in Shajahanpur, U.P. Congress vice-president Imran Masood from Nakur seat in Saharanpur, and BJP Legislature Party leader Suresh Kumar Khanna from Shahjahanpur city.
In the last Assembly polls, the incumbent Samajwadi Party had won 34, followed by the BSP 18, BJP 10, Congress 3 and others 2 in the above areas.
The second phase would be a test of the minority outreach of the Congress-SP alliance and the Bahujan Samaj Party as seven of the eleven districts going to the polls have more than 30% Muslim population.
While Rampur and Moradabad have more than 50% Muslim population, the minority community’s numbers in Bijnore and Amroha cross 40%.
