A voter turnout of 57.45 per cent was registered till 5 pm on Wednesday in 59 constituencies spread over nine districts of Uttar Pradesh in the fourth of the seventh-phase Assembly polls, as per the Election Commission.
The number is expected to rise.
The districts where the polling were held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur.
As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting.
According to the ECI, the highest turnout recorded till 3 pm was in Pilibhit with 54.83 per cent votes, Kheri 52.92 per cent, Sitapur 50.33 per cent, Hardoi 46.29 per cent, Unnao 47.29 per cent, Lucknow 47.62 per cent, Rae Bareli 50.84 per cent , Banda 50.08 percent and Fatehpur 52.60 per cent.
Around 64.69 per cent votes were cast till 3 pm in the re-polling on polling station number 266 of Karhal Assembly seat in Mainpuri district being held on the instruction of the Election Commission.
Polling in Karhal, from where SP president Akhilesh Yadav is in fray against Union minister and BJP's SP Singh Baghel, was held in the third phase on 20 February.
MoS Ajay Mishra casts his vote in Lakhimpur amid chaos
Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son Ashish Mishra is an accused in the farmers' murder case, earlier Wednesday cast his vote in Lakhimpur Kheri amid chaos while surrounded by scores of police personnel.
Ashish Mishra, jailed last October, was released on bail a week ago, in the middle of the UP election.
Chaotic visuals showed the minister pushing and shoving to get ahead as a large number of policemen formed a barrier between him and the media.
#WATCH | MoS Home Ajay Mishra Teni leaves from a polling booth in Banbirpur of Lakhimpur Kheri, after casting his vote for the fourth phase of #UttarPradeshElections2022pic.twitter.com/kgRpdoC9GP
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2022
Voting resumes in Lakhimpur's Kadipur Sani after brief interruption
Voting resumed after a brief interruption of two hours in the Kadipur Sani area of Lakhimpur Kheri after adhesive was thrown at the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections today, according to police officials.
The incident took place at booth number 109 of Kadipur Sani. The police have registered an FIR against the unidentified accused. Polling was halted for nearly 2 hours after which the EVM was replaced and the voting resumed once again. The voters expressed their anger over the interruption in the voting process.
According to the voters, they waited for casting their vote for two hours due to the interruption.
SP alleges irregularities in Lucknow, Unnao and Hardoi
According to EC officials, polling was mostly peacefully. However, the Samajwadi Party has alleged certain irregularities in some areas of Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi and Sitapur and demanded action.
In Lucknow, BSP president Mayawati, state minister Brijesh Pathak, and a number of senior officials were among the early voters.
At several places, morning walkers came carrying voting slips to cast their votes as soon as the polling began.
According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people, including 1.14 crore men and 99.3 lakh women, are eligible to vote, for whom 24,643 polling booths and 13,817 polling centres have been set up in this phase.
Lakhimpur Kheri - one among the nine districts up for polls - is the place where last year four farmers were mowed down by cars allegedly carrying BJP workers. Eight people, including the farmers, were killed in the violence there on 3 October.
'Dynasts ignored problems of Muslim women for vote bank'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi hit out at the Opposition leaders in the state. He said that "seasonal politicians who are active during elections will go on vacation again after 10 March".
He further alleged that the Opposition parties were only bothered about "vote bank" politics and did not pay attention to the problems of Muslim women suffering due to triple talaq.
The prime minister also claimed that the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party did everything it could to protect terrorists when it was in power in Uttar Pradesh.
You got to see 'mausami' (seasonal) leaders in COVID who disappeared during peak & reappeared when
it was controlled...They instigated people against vaccine but got themselves vaccinated...People of UP are well aware of 'seasonal' leaders: PM Modi in Kaushambi pic.twitter.com/nby6c5oJK3— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2022
At a poll rally in Kaushambi, the second one in a day in Uttar Pradesh, he accused the ministers, MLAs and MPs of "dynast parties" of "stealing" the ration of the poor during their rule.
Addressing a rally for the Barabanki and Ayodhya districts, Modi took a swipe at rivals for claiming that they can understand people's pain more than those who have no family, saying for him, UP and the entire country is family.
Exuding confidence over the BJP's victory in Uttar Pradesh, the prime minister also highlighted the large scale recruitment of women in Uttar Pradesh Police as well as in the army.
Modi talked about launching vaccination drives for animals and also caring for the marginal farmers by giving money directly in their bank account.
'SP, BSP copy-pasted Congress' announcements for women'
In an interview with news agency PTI, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi hit out at the BJP and SP saying that they divert attention from central issues like unemployment and inflation and instead talk about terrorism.
Alleging that the SP and BSP "copy-pasted" her party's announcements for women, she said, "I was amused to see that the SP and the BJP suddenly woke up to women when we came out with our women's manifesto and literally copy-pasted many of our announcements in their manifestos."
"Women are coming out in large numbers, they are vocal in their support for our campaign. They feel very strongly that women should be given full representation in politics," she added.
The Congress leader also said politics in the state of Uttar Pradesh needed an overhaul and the Congress is positioning itself to lead this change.
"Given the deeply ingrained religious and caste divides of Uttar Pradesh our message may take a longer time to filter into the voter's mindset but I am convinced that it will eventually sink in. Politics in the state needs an overhaul, we are positioning ourselves to lead this change," she said.
She also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi only took note of the stray cattle menace ahead of the elections. "We (Congress) have been raising the issue of stray cattle since 2019 and have announced compensation in our manifestos. Suddenly because the election is around the corner the prime minister declares that he has just been informed that this is a big issue- really? People in the entire northern belt of the nation have been suffering huge damage due to stray cattle for years and he has only found out now," Priyanka said.
Previous elections
Of the 59 seats across these districts, the BJP had won 51 in the 2017 Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party four, Bahujan Samaj Party three, and the remaining one had gone to the BJP's ally Apna Dal (Sonelal).
In 2017, 62.55 per cent polling was reported across these seats, while in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it was 60.03 per cent.
Among the prominent candidates in this phase are Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, SP's national spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria, former SP minister Abhishek Mishra, former Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Nitin Agarwal and Aditi Singh.
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February 23, 2022 at 07:33PM
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