Over 60% voter turnout in first phase UP polls
MEERUT/AGRA: The first phase of polling for 58 constituencies spread over 11 districts in West UP saw an average voter turnout of 60.17% on Thursday as the seven-phase state assembly election got underway.
Polling was peaceful barring complaints of electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioning, slow voting and scuffle between supporters of the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (SP-RLD) alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in some places. There were complaints about names missing from voter’s list in the three districts of Mathura, Aligarh and Agra in the Braj region.
Angry villagers in Dayampur village of Meerut Cantt constituency abstained from voting till the afternoon. They were demanding construction of a village road.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav urged the Election Commission to take immediate action wherever there are allegations of EVM malfunctioning or slow polling in Uttar Pradesh.
The districts that voted on Thursday amid heavy deployment of central and state forces were Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra.
Over one lakh personnel of the Uttar Pradesh police and home guards, besides 800 companies of paramilitary personnel were deployed for the first phase, according to officials.
A total of nearly 2.28 crore (22.8 million) voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the first phase in which 623 candidates, including 73 women, were in the fray. Thirtyseven of these 58 constituencies are spread over eight districts of the Meerut and Saharanpur divisions and 21 constituencies are in three districts of the Braj
region.
In 2017, the BJP, which swept to power in Uttar Pradesh, had won 53 of these 58 seats. The BSP had won two and the SP three.
People not only voted enthusiastically but also spoke openly about their issues and choices even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his first physical rally in Saharanpur, chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Sambhal, Samajwadi PartyRLD alliance leaders in Bijnor and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned in Rampur and Moradabad.
The political messaging of all the leaders centred on farm laws, security of women, law and order.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister in a video message had urged voters not to make any mistake as UP will turn into Kerala, West Bengal and Kashmir. This created a national controversy with the opposition leaders condemning UP’s comparison with the three states.
Voting which had started slow due to dense fog in the morning picked up momentum as the sun came out bright in the day. The highest voter turnout of 69.42% was reported from Shamli district.
The average percentage of voting on all seats in the 10 other districts was: Muzaffarnagar 65.34%, Meerut 60.91%, Baghpat 61.35%, Ghaziabad 54.77%, Hapur 60.50%, Gautam Buddh Nagar 56.73%, Bulandshahr 60.52%, Aligarh 60.49% , Mathura 63.28% and Agra 60.33%, according to the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer.
The important candidates in the first phase included UP ministers Sri Kant Sharma (Mathura-Vrindavan), Laxmi Narain Chaudhary (Chhata in Mathura), Kalyan Singh’s grandson Sandeep Singh (Atrauli in Aligarh), GS Dharmesh (Agra Cantt), Suresh Rana (Thanabhawan in Shamli), BJP national vice-president and former Uttarakhand governor Baby Rani Maurya (Agra Rural) and Congress leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura-Vrindavan).
Kairana in Shamli was considered a sensitive area where BJP candidate Mriganka Singh is pitted against the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance’s Nahid Hasan. The BJP leaders, especially Mriganka’s father the late Hukum Singh, had raised the issue of Hindu exodus in Kairana during the Samajwadi Party regime in 2016 and the party played up the issue once again in the 2022 poll campaign.