An estimated 57.98% of the 2.71 crore voters have exercised their franchise in 14 Lok Sabha seats in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Polling was by and large peaceful with some reports of minor clashes in Fatehpur . In Rae Bareli and Amethi , Congress and BJP complained against each other for rigging. There were several booths where voters boycotted due to local development issues.
ECI sources said that the polling percentage in this phase was around 57.98% at the end of the polling at 6PM as till 5 PM voting was 55.80%.
In this phase 14 LS seats and an assembly by-election voting is being held amid severe heat wave conditions in the polling region.
State Chief Electoral Officer ( CEO) Navdeep Rinwa told reporters here that based on the information received from the districts till 06:00 pm, the total average voting in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state was 57.98 percent.
In which Mohanlalganj (SC) recorded 62.72% , Lucknow 52.23% , Raebareli 54.40% , Jalaun (SC) 56.15 %, Jhansi 60.56 %, Banda 59.64%, Fatehpur 57.05%, Kaushambi (SC) 52.79%, Barabanki (SC) 67.10%, Faizabad 59.10%, Kaiserganj 55.68%, Gonda 51.64% and Lucknow East Assembly by-elections recorded 52.45 percent voting.
ECI sources here said that the polling was completed in a peaceful note and except for teething problems of the EVMs in the early hours, there were no complaints from anywhere.
For the purpose of keeping the voting process free and fair, webcasting was arranged at 14,984 polling places for effective supervision, which was supervised at all three levels by the District Election Officer, Chief Electoral Officer and Election Commission of India. Apart from the above, videography was also arranged at 4,199 polling places.
The CEO said during voting, certain complaints were received, which were resolved in a timely manner by the district officials.
According to the information received from the districts, during the mock poll of 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of the fifth phase, a total of 167 BUs, 268 CUs and 349 VVPATs were changed and after the start of voting, a total of 67 BUs, 67 CUs and 238 VVPATs were changed till 6:00 pm.
The CEO said adequate paramilitary forces were deployed to conduct the elections peacefully. The responsibility of security of EVM strong rooms has also been given to paramilitary forces. The elections were conducted completely peacefully and no information of any untoward incident has been received.
In Lucknow , the state capital, voters , mostly senior citizens, queued up at their respective booths from 6 in the morning whereas polling started at 7AM.
In the morning hours, voting started late in several booths of Lucknow due to faulty EVMS.
In this phase 144 candidates including 5 Union ministers and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s fate will be decided.
The Union ministers are Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Kaushal Kishore from Mohanlalganj, Shadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma from Jalaun.
Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Rae Bareli.
There are 2.71 crore voters in these 14 Lok Sabha seats which include 1.43 crore males and 1.27 crore females.There are a total of 17128 polling stations and 28688 polling booths.
Lucknow ( east) assembly segment , has 4.59 lakh voters.
In Lucknow BSP supremo Mayawati, Defence Minister and Lucknow BJP candidate Rajnath Singh voted while Union Minister Smriti Irani voted in Gauriganj ( Amethi).
All the leaders appealed to the voters to exercise their Democratic rights.
BSP supremo Mayawati said, “I hope that this time there will be a change (in power). It can be estimated from this that the public is silent and they are watching everything.”
Mayawati has made this claim while talking to the media after casting her vote in Lucknow.
On the other hand Rahul Gandhi has reached Rae Bareli from Delhi and visited polling stations in Rae Bareli starting from the booths of Bachhrawan and Harchandpur Assembly segments . He also had a darshan of a Hanuman temple.