With the mercury rising as the elections proceed further, the voting percentage has started showing a declining trend. Around 60.12 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the third phase polling for 12 lok Sabha seats in 15 sensitive districts of Central Uttar Pradesh.
Polling, though, was by and large peaceful barring a few stray incidents.Polling percentage in these 12 lok Sabha seats was 55.40 till 5 pm, 46.77 till 3 pm, 36.62 at 1 pm, 24.63 at 11 am and 11.20 till 9 am.Notably, the first phase polling in UP had recorded a 65 per cent voter turnout and the second phase 63 per cent.However, in comparison to 2009 lok Sabha polls, the voting percentage continued to show an upward trend.
Reports of violence was received from Mathura, where three people were injured in a firing between supporters of the BJP and RlD during polling. The incident took place in Baldev area of Mathura near a polling booth when supporters of BJP candidate Hema Malini and RlD candidate Jayant Chaudhary clashed. Both the groups first pelted stones at each other and then opened fire.
ADM (Mathura) Vishwa Bhushan said that three persons were injured in the clash. All were admitted to the district hospital.Another report, from Farrukhabad, said that Station House Officer of Meerapur police station, Ram Jivan Yadav, was placed under suspension by SP Alankrita Singh for forcing voters to vote for a particular candidate on Wednesday.
A report from Etah said that 635 voters of Amirpurwa village and 750 of Tatehpur village boycotted the polls. The voting started on a brisk note but slowed down a little due to the heat wave conditions.EC officials said polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported.Till 5 pm, Mathura recorded the highest polling percentage of 60.20 and Etawah the lowest of 52.03. Voting percentage in the third phase poll in 2009 lS elections was 46.63, while in the 2012 Assembly polls it was 60.42.
The third phase poll sealed the fates of many senior leaders, including Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), his daughter-in-law and wife of CM Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav (Kannauj), RlD candidates Amar Singh (Fatehpur Sikri) and Jayant Chaudhary (Mathura), Union External Affairs Minister and Congress candidate Salman Khurshid (Farrukhabad), Bollywood star Hema Malini of BJP (Mathura) and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew Akshay Yadav (Ferozabad).
Over 2.03 crore voters — 1.11 crore males and 91.14 females — sealed the fates of 188 candidates, including 20 women, in 21,946 polling booths, 4,757 if which were sensitive.Four parliamentary constituencies that went to poll on Thursday had more than 16 candidates in the fray with the maximum of 28 candidates at Fatehpur Sikri.
Hathras had the lowest number of candidates — nine.Agra was the largest constituency in terms of electorate having more than 18.14 lakh voters and Etah the smallest with 15.77 lakh voters.While Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have fielded their candidates from all these 12 constituencies, Congress field six candidates leaving three seats for its alliance partners RlD and Mahan Dal.
As many as 16 per cent of the candidates in fray in this phase have criminal background, while 35 per cent are crorepatis. In the 2009 lok Sabha election, the ruling Samajwadi Party had won four seats, Congress three , RlD two and BJP, BSP and an Independent one each. The constituencies which went to poll on Thursday included Hathras (SC), Mathura, Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Hardoi (SC), Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kannauj and Akbarpur.