A voter turnout of 60.1% was recorded on Wednesday during the fourth phase of polling across 59 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, with Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed in violence last year, witnessing the maximum turnout, data released by the Election Commission showed at 11 pm.
A total of 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting, which was held from 7 am till 6 pm, covering a large part of central Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow.
A total of six central Uttar Pradesh districts went to polls this time along with one district each in Bundelkhand, Rohilkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Pilibhit, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Raebareli, Banda and Fatehpur were among the districts where voting was held.
“Voting started at 7 am and lasted till 6 pm. As per reports received from districts concerned, 60.01% voters exercised their franchise on Wednesday,” he said. While Pilibhit recorded a turnout of 61.42%, Sitapur saw a turnout of 58.30%.
At 57.73%, Unnao registered the lowest turnout. Lucknow recorded a polling percentage of around 61%, the highest for the first time since the 1952 elections, district magistrate and district election officer Abhishek Prakash said. Hardoi registered a voting percentage of 58.99%, Raebareli 60.22%, Banda 57.48% and Fatehpur 60.7%.
Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed in violence during a protest against the now-repealed farm laws on October 3, recorded a voting percentage of 64.71%. Union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, whose son Ashish is the main accused in the violence case, cast his vote but did not speak to the media, neither while going inside the polling booth at a school in Banwaripur nor when he came out after casting his vote.
{{/usCountry}}Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed in violence during a protest against the now-repealed farm laws on October 3, recorded a voting percentage of 64.71%. Union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, whose son Ashish is the main accused in the violence case, cast his vote but did not speak to the media, neither while going inside the polling booth at a school in Banwaripur nor when he came out after casting his vote.
{{/usCountry}}The minister, whose vote falls in Nighasan assembly constituency, was flanked by a large number of security personnel. His elder son Abhimanyu Mishra also voted.
Meanwhile, the polling booth at Ganeshpur village in Dhaurahra constituency of the district received poor response from women voters. As many as 1,500 women were eligible to cast their vote in this village. Their participation, however, has remained negligible over the years and less than 50 women cast their votes on Wednesday.
In 2017, the district authorities had made several efforts to mobilise the women voters, following which over a dozen women turned up at the polling booths. Only 85 women voters cast their ballots in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In polling booth number 266 of Karhal assembly segment in Mainpuri district, where a repolling was ordered by Election Commission amid allegations of booth capturing by Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate SP Singh Baghel, the voter turnout stood at 73.67% at 5 pm.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is making his debut for the assembly poll from this seat where election was held in the third phase on February 20.
CEO Shukla claimed that voting was largely peaceful across the state. The SP, however, alleged irregularities in some areas of Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi and Sitapur and demanded action.
A turnout of 62.43%, 64.44% and 63.04% was registered in the first, second and third phases, respectively. Three more phases remain. While the BJP had won 50 of 59 seats in the 2017 assembly elections, the SP won four, the Congress won two, the BSP won two and BJP’s ally Apna Dal-S won one seat.
With inputs from Deo Kant Pandey in Lakhimpur Kheri, Pawan Dixit in Lucknow and agencies