Around 58 per cent voting was recorded in 51 Assembly segments across 11 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh during the fifth phase of polling on Monday. The fifth phase sealed the fate of 607 candidates, including 40 women, in EVMs.

As per indications, poll percentage could be around 58 per cent in these 51 seats and could rise as in several booths voters were still in queues when polling ended at 5 pm.

Election Commission officials said in lucknow that polling was by and large peaceful with sporadic incidents of clashes. However state government officials claimed that polling was incident-free and long queues were witnessed at several polling stations, especially in Terai districts along Indo-Nepal border like Balrampur, Sidharthnagar and Bahraich. Around two lakh policemen were deployed for the elections which included around 200 companies of Central para-forces.

EC officials said that till 9 am the voting percentage was 10.78 per cent, which rose to around 38.12 by 1 pm and was 49.19 per cent around 3 pm. 

In 2012 polls, the voting average in these 51 seats was 57.09 per cent and in 2014 lok Sabha polls, 55.58 per cent.

In Basti, SP and BJP supporters clashed near Dihrauli booth of Harriya Assembly segment during polling and police had to intervene to control the situation. In Faizabad, 10 BJP supporters were arrested after they attacked the car of the SP candidate during polling in Ayodhya.

In Gonda, a youth damaged the EVM at Abhaipur Belsar booth of Sadar segment aftet which he was arrested and the EVM was changed. In Sultanpur, some people assaulted a youth while he was returning after casting his vote in Ranipur area of lambua segment.

In Amethi, SP candidate and minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati cast his vote by breaking the queue, which created a commotion among voters. Voters in Amethi, Sultanpur, Ayodhya and Basti were seen reaching polling booths even before 7 am. 

In Bahriach, polling was delayed by an hour in at least six booths due to malfunctioning of EVMs.

The electorate exercised their franchise at 18,822 polling booths, of which 2,351 were marked as hyper-sensitive. The fifth phase was a litmus test for the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance as they had won around 80 per cent of seats in the 2012 elections.

In 2012, the SP had won 37 of the 51 seats, BSP-3, BJP-5, Congress-5 and Peace Party-2.

As per Election Commission, the voter turnout was as follows— Sant Kabirnagar-52 per cent, Ambedkar Nagar-64 per cent,  Amethi-60 per cent, Bahriach-58 per cent, Balrampur-54 per cent, Basti-60 per cent, Faizabad-61 per cent, Gonda 57.40  per cent, Sant Kabirnagar-52  per cent, Shravasti-66.40 percent  Sidharthnagar-52 per cent and Sultanpur 58 per cent.