UP Election: At 64 Per Cent voter turnout as polling ends for first phase in UP
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI : More than 60 percent polling was recorded in the first of the seven-phase Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
Official sources said that barring reports of election slips being snatched at some places, leading to pelting of stones and clashes, polling was going on peacefully.
A total of 2.60 crore voters, including over 1.17 crore women and 1,508 belonging to third gender category are eligible to cast their ballot to decide the fate of 839 candidates.
In a incident in Baghpat, Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) workers obstructed Dalit voters from casting their vote in Looyan village under Badaut area, leading to clash and FIR was lodged against three party workers.
In Meerut, controversial BJP leader Sangeet Som’s brother Gagan Som was detained by police for carrying a pistol inside a polling booth. Gagan reached the polling booth in Sardhana Assembly seat at 9 AM. The security personnel deployed there frisked him and found a pistol in his possession. He was immediately detained, police said.
Sangeet is the sitting MLA from Sardhana and had shot to limelight for his controversial speeches during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
The first phase of polling will decide the electoral fortunes of son of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Pankaj Singh (from Noida), Congress Legislature Party leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura) against whom BJP spokesman Srikant Sharma is in the fray, daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh Mriganka Singh (Kairana), and controversial BJP MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana from Sardhana and Thanabhawan respectively.
Former BJP state president Lakshmikant Bajpai (Meerut), RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son-in-law Rahul Singh (SP) from Sikandarabad, and Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan Govenor Kalyan Singh from Atrauli are among other key figures in this phase.
The districts where polling is on in this phase are Hapur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Etah and Kasganj.
In the 73 constituencies where polling is being held today, SP and BSP had bagged 24 seats each, BJP 11, RLD nine and Congress five seats in the 2012 polls. Talreja worked as a salesperson at Caribbean Jewellers in Kingston and his employer used to ask his employees to take some amount of cash home everyday to avoid theft in the shop, according to the reports.
Over 1.2 crore people voted for 73 seats spread across 15 districts to decide the fate of 839 candidates.Security was tight in the western city of Muzaffarnagar, where over 60 people were killed and tens of thousands were displaced in riots in 2013.
The BJP, SP-Congress alliance and the BSP are locked in a close contest in western UP, with Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal or RLD hoping to consolidate some of the Jat vote once again and push back into political relevance.
The BJP has projected no chief ministerial candidate for the UP elections and has built its campaign around PM Modi’s appeal. In his campaign, PM Modi has said that in banning 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, a move aimed at eliminating black or undeclared money, he had the interests of the poor at heart.
A strong showing in UP, country’s most populous state, would strengthen his chances of a second term in 2019.The BJP polled 42 per cent of the vote in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 general election, sweeping 71 out of 80 seats. In the region voting today, it had won Lok Sabha seats equal to over 65 of the 73 assembly segments.
The ruling Samajwadi Party is led by 43-year-old Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who rebelled against his father and has teamed up with the Congress in a strong combination. The SP had won a majority in the last state assembly election, in 2012, with just 29 per cent of the vote.
In western UP the Samajwadi Party and Congress hope to consolidate the significant Muslim vote – 17 per cent of the state’s total population – with the partnership – they split the vote in previous elections. Ms Mayawati, who hopes to wrest back the state she lost in 2012, too is eyeing the Muslim vote to supplement her Dalit support base that constitutes 21 per cent of the population. She has fielded almost 100 Muslim candidates this time.
Among candidates who are being watched closely in today’s elections are first time contestants Mriganka Singh (Kairana) and Pankaj Singh, son of union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, from Noida seat.
In the 2012 assembly elections the BJP had won 11 of the 73 seats that are voting today. The Bahujan Samaj Party and SP had won 24 seats each, Rashtriya Lok Dal had won nine and Congress five. Apart from the 24 seats it won in 2012, the BSP had finished second on over 30 seats.with Agency inputs.
