The first phase of polling in eight Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh passed off peacefully on Thursday with 63.69% voters exercising their franchise.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Uttar Pradesh, L Venkateshwar Lu said in the 2014 general election 65.76% votes were polled in these eight constituencies.

“The returning officers, in their report, have not recommended re-polling on any booth in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies,” Lu said while talking to media persons.

He said 3% Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs were changed during the mock poll as well as during polling at various booths in the eight constituencies.

The CEO said 70.68% votes were polled in Saharanpur, 62.10% in Kairana, 66.66% in Muzaffarnagar, 65.40% in Bijnor, 63% in Meerut, 63.90% in Baghpat, 57.60% in Ghaziabad and 60.15% in Gautam Buddh Nagar Lok Sabha seats.

Replying to a question, the CEO said that after taking cognizance of media reports of tampering in EVMs, the Election Commission sought report from returning officers, zonal magistrates and sector magistrates after checking the polling booths “but reports were found fake.”

He said no formal complaint was lodged by Bahujan Samaj Party regarding members of a particular community being denied from exercising their franchise.

“Again on the basis of media reports, the Election Commission sought report from all the district magistrates regarding the complaint. The DMs, in their reports, stated that no one was stopped from voting. There was also no report of intimidation in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls,” the CEO said.

Lu further said that at polling booths in Rasalpur Gujaran village, in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency, some people assembled at the booths without identity proof so the central para-military forces (CPMF) stopped them from entering the booths. “The people created a ruckus and to disperse them CPMF jawans fired in the air. The DM and SP visited the spot with extra police force. After 30 minutes disruption, polling continued,” he said. A case has been registered police against some unidentified people, he said.

When asked about distribution of Namo Food packets among policemen in Noida, Lu said during investigation it was found that Namo Food is running in the city for the last eight years and the local administration ordered food from there for the policemen on poll duty.

The EC also took cognizance of the claim by BJP candidate from Muzaffarnagar seat that women clad in ‘burqa’ indulged in bogus voting. “There was no bogus voting. The returning officer had deputed women personnel to identify female voters,” Lu said.

Inspector general (Law and Order) Praveen Kumar said there was no complaint at UP 100 regarding any irregularities in polling. The control room in the DGP headquarter was monitoring the complaints as well and majority of the complaints were found to be fake. Also, at several polling booths people were detained on the charge of disrupting polling,” Lu said.

First Published: Apr 12, 2019 00:21 IST