Uttar Pradesh assembly polls: Over 20 per cent voting till 11 am
Premium- The districts where the elections will be held are Shamli, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra
The battle for Uttar Pradesh began today with polling at 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state. Polling started at 7.00 AM and will continue till 6.00 PM, officials of the state election commission said here.
As many as 623 candidates, including 73 women are in the fray in the first phase and around 2.28 core voters, including 1.24 crore men and 1.04 crore women are eligible to caste their francise, election officials said.
Ministers whose fate would be decided in the first phase include Shrikant Sharma, Suresh Rana, Sandeep Singh, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Atul Garg and Chowdhury Lakshmi Narain.
In 2017, the BJP bagged 53 of the 58 seats, while the SP and the BSP had got two seats each. One seat had gone to the RLD.
Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections
Amid reports of technical snag in EVMs at some places, polling is going on peacefully in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday with an average of over 20 per cent votes being cast in the first four hours, Election Commission officials said.
Polling, which started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, is going on peacefully, they added.
Voting is being held in 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state in the first phase.
"Average 20.03 per cent polling was witnessed in UP in first four hours (7 am-11 am)," an Election Commission (EC) official said.
Additional Chief Election Officer (ACEO) B D Ram Tiwari said polling is going on peacefully.
"There were reports of a technical error in EVMs at some places. Those EVMs are being replaced," he said.
Uttar Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 7.95 per cent till 9:30 am in the first phase of Assembly elections on Thursday.
According to the Election Commission, the Mathura assembly seat recorded 8.23 per cent voter turnout, in Agra 7.64 per cent while 8.93 per cent turnout is recorded from the Bagpat seat.
Aligarh seat witnessed a voter turnout of 8.39 per cent whereas the Gautam Buddha Nagar reported an 8.07 per cent turnout.
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“These elections are no ordinary elections but are associated with development and safety of women in the state. In the last 5 years, we have laid the foundation for a prosperous Uttar Pradesh," says, Shrikant Sharma, BJP candidate from Mathura Assembly constituency.
“We are fighting on the agenda of development as we work with the mantra of 'Sabka saath, sabka vikas'. The people of the state don't want to see the politics of appeasement," says Sangeet Som, BJP candidate from Sardhana Assembly constituency.
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