Uttar Pradesh records 56% turnout in Phase 5 of polling
LUCKNOW: A turnout of around 55.8% was recorded for the fifth phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, according to the Election Commission’s data at 11pmon Sunday.
In this phase, voting was held for 61 assembly constituencies in 12 districts. According to the EC, voting began and 7 am and ended at 6 pm. The final turnout figure, that is likely to be made available on Monday is likely to remain the lowest of all the previous phases, each of which recorded above 60% voter participation. Average voter turnout in the same districts was 58.24% in 2017 assembly elections and 55.31% in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to the media earlier in the day, chief electoral officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said, “As per information received from the concerned districts, an average 53.93% voter turnout was recorded in the fifth phase by 5 pm.” “No untoward incident reported from any place,” he added.
As per the data released by the commission, till 5 pm, Ayodhya recorded the highest turnout at 61.06% 59.50%, closely followed by Chitrakoot at 59.50%. The lowest turnout was recorded in Pratapgarh at 50.20%.
There were some complaints of EVM malfunctioning and slow voting, and sporadic face-offs between some political parties in some areas of the Prayagraj region. There were also a few complaints about names missing from voter’s list.
“Voting was peaceful across the district. No major untoward incident was reported,” said Prayagraj district election officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri.
Pratapgarh district magistrate/ DEO Nitin Bansal,
pollinguttar too, said across the district was peaceful barring minor incidents that were quickly dealt with. The 12 districts where voting was held on Sunday were Amethi,
Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Baharaich, Shrawasti and Gonda. According to Shukla, a total 693 contestants were in the fray in the fifth phase and 90 of them were women. He said postal ballots were issued to 59,572 eligible voters of whom 52,757 voters exercised their franchise.
Police said voting was largely peaceful, barring in Pratapgarh’s Kunda seat where Samajwadi Party candidate Gulshan Yadav’s convoy was allegedly attacked by some people. Party workers claimed that Yadav sustained minor injuries.
Samajwadi Party state president Naresh Uttam and party national spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhury have sent a written complaint to the Election Commission.in Pratapgarh district, Congress and BJP workers clashed at a polling booth of Naudia polling station in Rampur Khas assembly constituency. Peace was ensured only after the Sangramgarh police took one individual each from both the sides into custody and sent them to the police station.
(With PTI inputs)