UP polls: Around 64% voting for 73 seats

Lucknow, Feb 11 (UNI) An estimated 64 per cent voters of the total 2.6-crore electorate exercised their franchise in the first round of seven phase Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls today in 26,823 polling booths, of which 5,140 are identified as hyper-sensitive, which passed off peacefully.

Though there were reports of some minor incidents like clashes and firing, but it did not affect the polling anywhere. BJP candidate Sanjeet Som's brother Gagan Som has been detained after a pistol was recovered from him near a polling booth in Sardhana Assembly constituency, during polling.

An FIR has been registered against Gagan under relevant Section of the IPC. Reports of minor clashes were received from Aligarh, Etah, Meerut and Ferozabad, but there was no such big incident. In Meerut, firing took place near Booth 34-37 at Mundali village in Kithore area, when supporters of SP and BSP fired on each other. One was injured in the firing. Besides minor clashes, polling was totally peaceful in all 73 constituencies of western UP with no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere, state ADG (Law and Order) Daljeet Singh here claimed.

Around two-lakh policemen were on duty for ensuring free and fair polls, with alone 823 companies of central forces were deployed in this first phase of polling. Except for some teething problem of faulty EVMs , polling was peaceful everywhere, state chief electoral officer T Vekentesh told UNI here today thanking the people for coming out in big numbers to vote.

The polling ended at 5:00 hrs, but at several booths, voters were still in queue and they were allowed to cast their votes. There were 839 candidates in the fray in the first phase of polling, including 77 women, in which around 20 per cent have criminal cases registered against them and 36 per cent are crorepatis (multi-millionaires). BJP and BSP have fielded candidates in all 73 seats, while SP restricted it to 51 seats, its alliance Congress 24 seats and RLD in 57 seats. As many as 293 Independents are also in the fray. According of reports, the polling percentage till 1300 hrs was around 39.80 per cent, while till 1500 hrs, it was 52.90 per cent.

At 3:00 hrs, Agra polled in 51.47 per cent, Aligarh registered 52.57, Baghpat 53.30, Bullandshahr 54.20, Etah 51, Ferozabad 54.62, Gautam Buddha Nagar 49.33, Ghaziabad 46.60, Hapur 54.93, Hatras 50.20, Kasganj 50.87, Mathura 55.42, Meerut 56.27, Muzaffarngar 53.27, and Shamli 55.83 per cent. In 2012 Assembly polls, 73 constituencies polled an average of 61.04 per cent. The next phase of elections at 67 Assembly seats would be held on February 15. Polling for 403 Assembly seats in UP would be held in seven phases, which started today and will end on March 8. Counting of votes of all seven phases would be done on March 11.