Nearly 60.44% (tentatively till 5pm) of over 20 million voters exercised their franchise on Monday as polling for 55 seats in nine districts of Uttar Pradesh concluded in the second phase of the seven-phase elections, the state election commission (SEC) said, adding that no untoward incident was reported during the voting.
The constituencies in the second phase are spread across Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Budaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur districts. Till 5 pm, Saharanpur recorded a turnout of 67.13%, Bijnor 61.48%, Moradabad 64.88%, Sambhal 56.93%, Rampur 60.30%, Amroha 66.19%, Budaun 55.91%, Bareilly 57.88% and Shahjahanpur 55.25%.
A turnout of 62.4% was recorded in the first phase of the polls on February 10.
A total of 586 candidates are in the fray in the second phase. Prominent among them are former minister Dharam Singh Saini who joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) shortly before the elections and is trying his luck from Nakur. Uttar Pradesh finance minister Suresh Khanna is contesting from Shahjahanpur. UP minister of state for jal shakti Baldev Singh Aulakh is contesting from Bilaspur and MoS Mahesh Chandra Gupta from Budaun. Senior SP leader Azam Khan is contesting from his stronghold Rampur and his son Abdullah Azam from the Suar seat.
Meanwhile, the opposition Samajwadi Party alleged that a person voted for the party in Saharanpur but the vote was wrongly recorded for BJP.
Additional Chief Election Officer Brahma Dev Ram Tiwari, however, said the information was found to be false by teams that went to the booth. A complaint by also filed by BJP leader JPS Rathore, who alleged fake voting by burqa-clad women. “A report has been sought from the district magistrate,” Tiwari said.
In some areas of Bareilly division, too, polling was briefly affected due to EVM snags.
Complete News Source : Hindustan Times
