An estimated 65 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the second phase of Assembly elections which witnessed stray clashes on Wednesday.
Nearly 60 percent voting was recorded till 4 pm where polling was done for 67 Assembly segments across 11 districts of western UP. The districts that went to polls were Bijnore, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Badaun, Rampur, Bareilly, Amroha, Pilibhit, Kheri and Shahjahanpur.
In the second phase, 2.28 crore voters, including over 1.04 crore women, were eligible to cast their ballots at 14,771 polling centres and 23,693 polling stations.
like the first phase on February 11, the dominant narrative in all 11 districts on Wednesday was whether or not Muslim votes would split between the SP-Congress alliance, BSP and AIMIM and in the process help the BJP. The other point widely discussed was whether the minority community would tactically vote to defeat the Saffron party.
Meanwhile, Election Commission officials said in lucknow that polling ended in 67 Assembly seats of Rohailhand and Terai areas at 5 pm though a sizeabkle number of voters were seen queuing up and were allowed to cast their votes.
“Polling was by and large peaceful with reports of some minor incidents,” said UP Chief Election Officer T Vekantesh on Wednesday evening. He said that during polling some complaints were received over EVM malfunction and rigging. “We have sought reports from respective district magistrates in all the complaints,” he said.
Additional DG (law and Order) Daljeet Chaudhary said that there werer no untoward incident in the second phase of elections.
Considered a crucial test for the Samajwadi Party-Congress truck, the second phase of polling saw the fate of several senior politicians, including SP leader and minister Azam Khan and his son Abudullah (Rampur), BJP legislature party Suresh Kumar Khanna( Shahjahanpur), Former Union minister and Congress leader Jitin Prasada (Shahjahanpur) and Congress leader Imran Masood ( Saharanpur), being sealed.
Police sources said that SP and BJP supporters clashed at Islamia College polling booth in Badaun Assembly segment and minor force was used to disperse the warring mob.
In another incident at Sambhal, the body of a BJP supporter was found hanging from a tree near Pathakpur bridge in Bahjoi area on Wednesdaymorning. District officials said that the incident was not related to elections. However tension prevailed in the area.
SP-Congress and BSP lodged complaint of rigging by BJP supporters in some booths at Chandausi Assembly seat in Sambal while security forces did not allow AIMIM candidate form Sambhal seat Ziaurrahman Barq at Arya Samaj College polling booth.
Several mobile phones were seized by the police from polling agents and supporters of political parties who forced their entry into a polling booth in Bilari Assembly seat of Moradabad district.
The second phase of polling has sealed the fate of 721 candidates in the fray, including 82 women aspirants. Around 15 per cent of the candidates have criminal cases registered against them, while 36 per cent are crorepatis (multi-millionaires).
In the second phase, the BJP and BSP had fielded candidates in all 67 seats while the 51 SP candidates were in the fray. The Congress had fielded 18 candidates, RlD 52 while the rest were from other outfits or Independents.
In 2012 Assembly polls, the average poll percentage was 65.17 with Saharanpur polling the highest of 71.11 per cent and the lowest being recorded at Rampur with 60.32 per cent. In 2014 lok Sabha elections, the average voter turnout was 63.53 per cent in these districts.
The counting of votes for all seven phases would be held on March 11. The next phase of elections in 69 seats would be held on February 19.