Over 60 per cent of voters cast their votes in eight Lok Sabha seats in the first phase polls in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

The polling remained peaceful with no reports of violence except some teething problems in EVMs at some polling booths.

The voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections was held in eight seats from 7 am to 6 pm. Over two lakh security personnel had been deployed to ensure peaceful polling.

The seats where polls were held in the first phase are Saharanpur, Bijnore, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit.

Union Minister of State Sanjeev Balyan, PWD Minister in Yogi Government Jitin Prasad, BJP MP from Kairana Pradeep Choudhary, RLD MLA Chandan Chauhan of Meerapur, who has fielded as NDA (RLD) candidate from Bijnore and MLA Nataur Om Kumar as BJP candidate from Nagina are among 80 candidates, who are in the fray.

There were a total of 1.43 crore voters in the first phase of seats, of which 76.23 lakh were men, 67.14 lakh women and 824 were of third gender.

There were a total of 7693 polling stations and 14,842 polling booths in the first phase.

Amid allegations made by the opposition parties of misuse of official machinery, there was not a single case of law and order problem so far, said an EC official.

According to reports, the Samajwadi Party posted on social media alleging that names of about 1500 voters are missing from the voter list at Booth Number 172 of village Masavi under Bhawan Thana in Kairana Lok Sabha.

They alleged voting is going on at a slow pace at Booth Number 270 in Saharanpur city of Saharanpur Lok Sabha.

Due to the booth being dominated by Muslims, the administration is affecting the pace of voting, they said.

The SP alleged that in Saharanpur Lok Sabha the administration is not allowing voters to cast their votes even after checking the slips at booth numbers 58, 62 and 73 of Inter College. Also, no one is being allowed inside with a handicapped/disabled person.

The party said that Booth Number 52 in Bilaspur of Rampur Lok Sabha is being captured by the BJP supporters and the SP voters are being driven away. The SP has demanded the Election Commission to take cognizance and conduct fair voting.

In Rampur’s Raza Degree College, SP candidate Maulana Mohibbullah Nadvi got angry while raising questions on the role of police.

He said that more than a dozen police complaints have been made but no action taken so far. Not allowing voting would be murder of democracy and the people will lose confidence in the Election Commission, Nadvi said.

In Pilibhit, villagers demonstrated against the police administration outside the polling station in protest against beating of SP agent and his father and brother with sticks at the polling station of Vedkheda village of Bisalpur.

Due to the protest by the villagers, voting work was disrupted at the polling station for about half an hour. The police have taken the agent and his father into custody.

Meanwhile, the ECI polling percentage at 1700 hrs was pegged at 57.56 per cent.