Amidst reports of minor clashes between supporters of political parties, missing names in voters list, technical snags in some electronic voting machines etc, the voting for the first phase of urban local bodies polls was completed peacefully on Thursday.
A voter turnout of over 50 per cent was recorded till 6 pm and at many places, voters were still standing in queues waiting to cast their votes.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), a polling percentage of 51.67 was recorded in Shamli district, 50.57 per cent in Shravasti and 50.92 per cent in Maharajganj. Varanasi recorded a polling percentage of 32.7 and Prayagraj 24.31, till 3 pm, the SEC said.
In a shocking development, Sub-Divisional Magistrate Virendra Kumar Mittal died of heart attack during election duty in Mainpuri. The SDM was the election officer of Jyoti Khudia nagar panchayat. He was posted as additional deputy collector at the Collectorate.
Voters in 37 districts exercised their franchise in the first phase of the polls to elect 7,593 representatives, including 10 mayors and 820 corporators out of the total 44,232 aspirants, the SEC said. The districts where mayoral elections were completed in the first phase are Saharanpur, Agra, Moradabad, Firozabad, Mathura, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi. More than 2.40 crore people were eligible to vote in the first phase, the officials said, adding that all the posts were being contested on party symbols. The first phase of voting was held in 37 districts – Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Mainpuri, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli and Jaunpur of nine divisions of Uttar Pradesh i.e. Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Devipatan, Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
The voting was held amidst high security arrangements. Special Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that as many as 19,880 inspectors/sub-inspectors; 1,01,477 head constables/constables; 47,985 home guards; 86 companies of PAC; 35 companies of CAPF and 7,500 under-training sub-inspectors were posted for the first phase of the urban local bodies elections and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere.
The India-Nepal border was also sealed from 6 pm on Tuesday. The security personnel maintained a strict vigil but allowed people who had to attend weddings or had some emergency work to pass. Paramilitary and police personnel were continuously patrolling the Indo-Nepal border. Soldiers were carrying out pillar-to-pillar mobile duty for the security of the open border, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) border outpost in-charge Jayant Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, stray incidents of clashes, missing names in voter lists including technical snags in EVMs were reported at some places. Councilor candidate of Ward No. 14 of Hassanpur municipality in Amroha, Madhusudan alias Madhua, was brutally attacked on Wednesday night. He was seriously injured and referred to higher medical centre in Ghaziabad where he succumbed on Thursday afternoon. The family members accused the rival of killing the victim.
During the voting in Gajraula, also in Amroha district, there was a ruckus at some sensitive booths. Sources said that the Muslim voters and Bharatiya Janata Party workers were engaged in brick batting. During this, vehicles were also vandalised. Due to this incident, the polling personnel stopped their work and locked their rooms from inside. Sources said that at about 11 am, some voters of a particular community were stopped from casting their votes at Jalal Nagar, a highly sensitive polling booth located in front of the municipality office. The police had a heated argument with these voters who had gathered near the mosque when the supporters of the BJP candidate reached the spot. The atmosphere heated up after the hot-talk between the two sides and then stone pelting started from both the sides. Not only this, vehicles of polling parties were also vandalised during the clash.
On the other hand, fearing ruckus, the polling personnel stopped their work and locked their rooms from inside. The police detained one of the people who pelted stones. On the other hand, the police force deployed at other polling stations was also called to the spot. Police officer Arun Singh said that the people who created ruckus were being searched.
After getting information about the incident, Samajwadi Party candidate Urvashi Chaudhary reached the spot with her husband Mukesh and another candidate Rajendra alias Uma Devi along with her son Sanjay Sagar. They had heated arguments with the police. The polling was later held peacefully and senior officers denied any irregularity, terming the allegations as “baseless”.
In Maharajganj, supporters of a BJP and a Congress candidate clashed with each other near a house during polling in Nichlaul town. The two accused each other of distributing money to voters, police said. The supporters left before the police reached the spot, they said.
In a separate incident, two persons were arrested after alleged bogus voting in Orai tehsil campus in Jalaun.
Arrests were also made after Bharatiya Janata Party and Bahujan Samaj Party workers clashed in Hardoi. In Unnao, an FIR was lodged with the Kotwali police after a video surfaced in which SP candidate Neetu Patel’'s husband Raman Patel was allegedly giving money for votes. Neetu Patel is contesting for the post of chairperson of Unnao nagar palika.
In Lakhimpur Kheri, there was an allegation that the supporters of the SP candidate threw a brick at the vehicle of the BJP candidate. The supporters of both the parties came face to face with this incident which took place in public. As soon as the information was received, the police officers also reached the spot. A video of this ruckus also surfaced. According to the information, the incident took place near DS Inter College. The BJP and SP supporters came face to face. Within no time, the dispute escalated so much that an uproar started. Meanwhile, it was alleged that someone threw a brick at BJP candidate Pushpa Singh’s car, which damaged her car. Pushpa Singh’s husband Awadhesh Singh accused SP candidate Rama Vajpayee’s husband Mohan Vajpayee and supporters of attacking the car. The police later reached and controlled the situation. However, the district magistrate categorically denied the incident. The district magistrate said polling was held peacefully.
In Sambhal also, an independent candidate and his supporters were accused of assaulting the BJP candidate.
There was ruckus during voting in Saraswati Vidya Mandir in Shamli. It was said that there was an allegation that independent candidate Anil Upadhyaya and his supporters assaulted the BJP supporters. After the incident, the police reached the spot and took some people into custody.
In Firozabad, a SP candidate’s son was shot at just before the elections. Local police claimed that the incident took place over some old enmity. The injured was admitted to the trauma centre for treatment.
A youth was caught during polling at Kairana in Shamli district on Thursday. It was claimed that the youth had come to cast fake votes. Police caught him at the booth of Public Inter College, Kairana. His identity was not revealed yet.
Meanwhile, voting was stopped temporarily at a polling station in Moradabad due to a technical snag in an electronic voting machine (EVM). The EVM stopped working at Shyamu Devi polling station booth number 288 in Moradabad, thus temporarily stalling the polling process.
In Lucknow, District Magistrate, Suryapal Gangwar said that all EVMs that were not working properly had been replaced.
In Saharanpur, former MLA and BSP leader Imran Masood attacked BJP, accusing it of using government machinery. Alleging that his supporters were not being allowed to vote, Masood said that it was murder of democracy. “There is no point in such elections,” he said.
Khadija Masood, sister-in-law of BSP leader Imran Masood, is the mayoral candidate from BSP in Saharanpur. Masood said that polling booths in Muslim-dominated areas were crowded since morning but the voters were not allowed to cast their votes.
“BJP staged a drama in the name of bogus voting by holding a press conference on polling eve and we had an apprehension that BJP people would definitely do something wrong. The police lathi-charged our voters at JVS School. Complaint was made to the observer, but no one was hearing,” he claimed, while accusing BJP of using government machinery.
Meanwhile District Magistrate of Saharanpur, Akhilesh Singh, said that polling was peaceful across the district. On the complaint of fake ID, some people were detained and questioned.
Meanwhile, BSP supremo Mayawati exuded confidence of a big victory for her party. “Our party is contesting the polls alone. I hope that my party will get a good response and the results will be good,” BSP supremo and former chief minister of UP, Mayawati, said after casting her vote at a school in Mall Avenue area of Lucknow.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Brijlal Khabri said his party was contesting all the 17 seats of mayors, and around 70 per cent seats of corporators and hoped that the party would win maximum seats.
