Voting was underway on Sunday for 14 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, election officials said.
Voting began at 7 a.m. in the constituencies of Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Phulpur, Allahabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Shravasti, Dumariyaganj, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Lalganj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Machhlishahr and Bhadohi. Polling will end at 6 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer L. Venkateshwar Loo said that a total of 2.57 crore voters will decide the fate of 177 candidates in the fray in this phase.
Of the polling stations, 4,995 have been categorised as sensitive. Paramilitary troopers are deployed in these booths, Loo said.
Prominent among the candidates include former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who is contesting from Azamgarh, Bharatiya Janata Party's Rita Bahuguna from the Allahabad seat and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.
Azamgarh is one of the few parliamentary constituencies that did not get swept away in the 2014 polls and elected Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav as its lawmaker.
--IANS
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