Polling on eight seats of western UP on Thursday took place peacefully with the exception on an incident of firing in Kairana and malfunctioning of a few Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The final voter turnout has been recorded as 63.69% on these eight seats.

The poll percentage is expected to increase in the concluding hour as the polling would continue till 6 pm. The poll percentage recorded at 5 pm on the eight seats is Saharanpur 61.57%, Baghpat 60%, Muzaffarnagar 62.29%, Bijnor 61.50%, Gautam Budh Nagar 57.63%, Ghaziabad 60% (approx), Meerut 62.58% and Kairana 60.35%.

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ADG Prashant Kumar claimed that polling on these eight seats of western UP has been conducted peacefully.

As the polling started in the morning, voters of all age groups turned up with enthusiasm to cast their votes. Voting picked up in spite of the scorching heat as voters continued to turn up at their respective booths.

Overall, polling was peaceful with the exception of a few stray incidents. In Rasoolpur Jugran village of Kairana constituency, the BSF had to fire in air in self-defence. The trouble started when the security personnel stopped some youths who came to cast votes without ID. This enraged the crowd and the situation turned volatile. However, the situation was controlled and voting resumed, said DM Shamli Akhilesh Kumar.

There were reports of EVM malfunctioning from a few areas with Saharanpur reporting the most number of EVM glitches. About 100-110 EVMs were reportedly not functioning, confirmed DM Saharanpur Alok Pandey, adding that they, however, were replaced and the polling was restarted.

In Mundali area of Meerut at Booth no 389 of village Lauti Menh, a woman charged the polling agent of pressing the button of BJP and not BSP when she asked for his help. This led to conflict as those accompanying her demanded immediate action.

However, there were claims of fake voting by some parties. A BJP leader claimed that fake voting was going on as he registered a complaint with the EC demanding repolling.

The fate of 96 candidates, including 10 women candidates, will be locked on eight Lok Sabha seats of western UP on Thursday evening. On these 8 seats, a total of 15065682 voters including 8224835 males, 6839833 females and 1014 transgenders cast their votes.

Candidates in the fray

Meerut

Rajendra Aggarwal – BJP

Haji Yaqub Qureshi – BSP

Harendra Aggarwal – INC

Baghpat

Satyal Singh – BJP

Jayant Chaudhary  – RLD

Muzaffarnagar

Sanjeev Baliyan  – BJP

Ajit Singh  – RLD

Kairana

Pradeep Chaudhary  – BJP

Tabassum Hasan  – SP

Harendra Malik  – INC

Saharanpur

Raghav Lakhanpal  – BJP

Fazlurreham  – BSP

Imran Masood  – INC

Bijnor

Bhartendra Singh  – BJP

Malook Nagar  – BSP

Naseeruddin Siddiqui  – INC

Ghaziabad

VK Singh  – BJP

Suresh Bansal  – SP

Dolly Sharma  – INC

Gautam Budh Nagar

Mahesh Sharma  – BJP

Satveer Nagar  – BSP

Arvind Chauhan  – INC