With polling for the second phase of urban local bodies elections ending almost peacefully, the fates of the contestants were sealed in the ballot boxes.

The counting of votes will take place on Saturday.

“In the second phase of elections in 38 districts of nine divisions of the state, polling for seven mayors and 581 corporators of municipal corporations, 95 nagar palika chairpersons, 2,520 nagar palika parishad members, 267 nagar panchayat chairpersons and 3,459 nagar panchayat members was completed peacefully with over 55 per cent polling reported in this phase,” claimed State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar here on Thursday evening.

Till 5.00 pm, 49.33 per cent polling was reported.

Kumar said in the second phase, polling was held for 6,929 posts of various bodies, in which more than 1,92,32,004 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise on Thursday at 19,618 polling centres. He said out of the total voters, 1,02,16,992 were men and 90,15,012 women.

Kumar said that arrangements for videography/CCTV/webcasting were made for continuous monitoring at very sensitive polling places. He said no untoward incident was reported from any district in the second phase of the urban local bodies elections.

The state election commissioner said that in the second phase of local bodies elections in the state, 49.33 per cent polling was reported from 38 districts till 5 pm on Thursday. He said 60.48 per cent polling was recorded in Amethi district, 57.08 per cent polling in Ambedkar Nagar, 49.98 per cent in Ayodhya, 46.02 per cent in Aligarh, 53.14 per cent in Azamgarh, 50.93 per cent in Etawah, 54.02 per cent in Etah, 58.01 per cent in Auraiya, 59.82 per cent in Kannauj, 62.28 per cent in Kanpur Dehat, 39.07 per cent in Kanpur Nagar, 57.31 per cent in Kasganj, 41.92 per cent in Ghaziabad, 50.27 per cent in Gautam Buddha Nagar, 51.02 per cent in Chitrakoot, 59.21 percent in Pilibhit, 49.98 per cent in Farrukhabad, 54.89 per cent in Budaun, 46.75 per cent in Bareilly, 58.41 per cent in Bulandshahr and 52.95 per cent Ballia.

Kumar said that 52.59 per cent polling was reported in Basti district, 62.72 per cent in Baghpat, 51.06 per in Banda, 50.92 per cent in Barabanki, 54.84 per cent in Bhadohi, 61.17 per cent in Mau, 45.59 per cent in Meerut, 8.41 per cent in Mahoba, 48.94 per cent in Mirzapur, 59.92 per cent in Shahjahanpur, 55.83 per cent in Sant Kabir Nagar, 54.61 per cent in Sultanpur, 54.24 per cent in Siddharthnagar, 49.54 per cent in Sonbhadra, 61.09 per cent in Hamirpur, 52.42 per cent in Hathras and 53.22 per cent in Hapur till 5 pm.

Reports said that Baghpat district led the chart with 53.96 per cent voter turnout till 3 pm. Hapur, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Kannauj were also among the districts that recorded over 50 per cent polling.

In a series of tweets, Samajwadi Party, the main opposition party, once again accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of indulging in fake voting in Gursahaiganj polling booth of Kannauj.

It also claimed that the husband of an Independent candidate in Kanpur's Ghatampur was shot and that Dalits and Other Backward Classes were denied voting rights. 

The SP further alleged that Muslim voters at the Bholanath Dharamshala polling booth of Kannauj municipal council were assaulted by people of the ruling party and that the police remained mute spectators. There were reports of six fake voters being caught at a polling booth in Mau district.

Prominent among the early voters were Cooperatives Minister JPS Rathore and PWD Minister Jitin Prasada at Sudama Prasad Vidyalaya in Shahjahanpur. Speaker of UP Assembly Satish Mahana cast his vote in Kanpur Nagar and Minister of State (independent charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Arun Kumar in Bareilly.

Union minister and Apna Dal (Sonelal) leader Anupriya Patel, who cast her vote in Mirzapur, said that efforts were on to ensure the progress of the district.

The BJP has fielded 10,758 candidates (out of whom 4,248 are women), the highest among all parties. The SP has fielded the second highest number of candidates, 5,231 (of whom 2,223 are women); followed by 3,787 (1,611 women) contestants by Bahujan Samaj Party. The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have fielded 2,994 (1,395 women) and 2,447 (1,031 women) candidates respectively.

Over 66 per cent of the total candidates in both phases of the polls are independents.