Eight out of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha seats went to the polls in the first phase of national elections on Thursday even as glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs), an incident of firing and complaints about missing names from the electoral rolls marred the polling.

Till 9 pm, 63.69% voters exercised their franchise. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won eight seats in western Uttar Pradesh in 2014, is facing a tougher contest in the face of the alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance. The alliance is banking on Dalits and Muslims, who account for about 30% to 40% of the voters in the region.

Prashant Kumar, the Meerut zone additional director general of police, visited sensitive polling booths to monitor security arrangements as 176 companies of paramilitary forces and state police were deployed.

A Border Security Force jawan was forced to fire in air to push back a violent crowd in Karana’s Rasoolpur Jugran as they demanded they be allowed to vote without ID proofs.

District magistrate Akhilesh Kumar and other officials rushed to the spot and the situation was controlled. “Polling went on peacefully after the issue was resolved,” said Kumar.

Saharanpur’s district magistrate, Anoop Kumar Pandey, said 100 to 110 EVMs malfunctioned due to the heating problem. He added they were replaced and extra time was given for voting.

A BSP agent at a polling booth in Meerapur claimed he pressed an EVM button to vote for his party but it went to the BJP. He said it happened with six to seven voters. Officials said that the sector magistrate of Meerapur checked the EVM and found the claim to be false.

A Dalit woman in Lauti Menk village accused a polling staff member of voting on her behalf for the BJP when she asked him to locate the BSP’s symbol on the EVM at her polling booth. She raised the issue with officials and sought action.

Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alleged that the state police stopped dalits from casting votes. “We are receiving information from various polling stations that BSP voters, especially Dalits, are being stopped from reaching polling booths...” BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra said.

Samajwadi Party said the trend on all eight seats in UP was in favour of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweeted: “The way votes have been cast against the BJP in the first phase is indicative of the anger in the public over the crisis that emerged in sectors like agriculture, employment and trade under BJP rule. We are thankful to voters for unprecedented voting in favour of the gathbandhan (opposition alliance).”

First Published: Apr 11, 2019 23:42 IST