In the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, 55-60 per cent voter turnout is expected to be recorded.Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said here on Friday that by 5 pm 52.74 per cent voter turnout was recorded in eight Lok Sabha constituencies where polling was held on Friday.
Prominent among the 91 candidates whose fate was decided in the second phase polling are actors-turned-politician Hema Malini, who is seeking a third term from Mathura, and Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Ram in the Ramayana TV serial. He has been fielded by the BJP from his native place Meerut. The other prominent candidates are Danish Ali of Congress from Amroha, and BJP’s Atul Garg from Ghaziabad and Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddha Nagar.
The constituencies where polling was held on Friday included Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Aligarh, Mathura and Bulandshahr.
The CEO said polling was peaceful in all eight Lok Sabha constituencies and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere. He said around 150 complaints were received at the state control room and all were promptly disposed of.
The CEO said complaints related to faulty electronic voting machines (EVMs), power supply breakdown, slow polling and identification documents produced by voters. He said 48 ballot units, 213 control units and 469 VVPAT machines were replaced. In one polling booth, a polling agent was asked by the police to leave the booth. Following a complaint by the political party, the agent was allowed to stay at the particular polling booth.
In Amroha, a woman, Ameena Khatoon aged 70 years, collapsed inside the polling booth after casting her ballot. She died of cardiac arrest.
At Lalgarhi village in Khair Assembly segment of Aligarh Lok Sabha constituency, the villagers boycotted the polling in protest against the lack of development in their village. The district officials tried to pacify the angry villagers and persuaded them to vote. Later, out of 850 voters nearly 200 cast their votes.
Under the seat-sharing arrangement between the Samajwadi Party and Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the grand old party is contesting in 17 constituencies while the SP has fielded its candidates in the remaining 63 seats.
In the 2019 general elections in Uttar Pradesh, barring Amroha, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won rest of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies that went to poll on Friday.
Uttar Pradesh has already completed the first phase of voting on April 19. The remaining constituencies will vote in subsequent phases on May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
A three-cornered fight was witnessed in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that went to polls in the second phase of election on Friday.
According to the Election Commission of India, till 5 pm, Amroha recorded maximum turnout at 61.89 per cent, followed by Meerut (55.49 per cent), Aligarh (54.36 per cent), Bulandshahr (54.34 per cent), Baghpat (52,74 per cent), Gautam Buddha Nagar (51.66 per cent), Ghaziabad (48.21 per cent) and Mathura (46,96 per cent).
“In the second phase, a strange trend was observed throughout the day. The number of voters from all communities and classes voting in support of the INDIA bloc kept on increasing at every booth, while on the other hand, the number of Bharatiya Janata Party voters kept on decreasing,” Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said in a post.
Uttar Pradesh, being the largest state, sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha and thus is a dominant force in electoral influence and therefore one of the key focus areas of all political parties. In the 2019 general election, the BJP had emerged victorious, securing 62 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, with two additional seats won by its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). The Bahujan Samaj Party managed to secure 10 seats, while Samajwadi Party secured five seats. The Congress secured only one seat.
This time, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party are contesting in an alliance under the opposition INDIA Bloc. With the National Democratic Alliance, the INDIA Bloc and the Bahujan Samaj Party fielding their candidates, a three-cornered contest is on the cards.
