An estimated 60.03 per cent of the of the total 1.41 crore voters exercised their franchise in the seventh and the last phase of polling for the UP state assembly elections on Wednesday.
The polling was held in 40 Assembly seats spread in seven districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The assembly seats also included the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lok Sabha constituency Varanasi. The last phase of election was seen as the `mother of all battles’ in UP elections as the prime minister had camped in Varanasi for three days and held three road shows besides three election meetings.
According to Election Commission by the end of polling at 5 pm the estimated 60 percent voter’s turnout was recorded and could marginally increase in some constituencies as there were long queues at several polling stations.
UP Chief Electoral Officer T Vekentesh said that except for the complaints of EVM malfunction, the polling was peaceful in all the 40 constituencies and there was no incident of violence during the polling. He said that till 9 am the voting percentage was 10.43 per cent which increased to 22.84 per cent till 11 am and at 37.68 per cent at 1 pm while rose to 51,69 per cent at 13 pm .
In 2012 assembly elections these districts polled an average of 57.92 per cent while in 2014 lok Sabha polls it was around 55 per cent.
With the last phase election on Wednesday the polling in all the 403 assembly seats except in Alapur assembly seat in Amebdkar nagar district, has been completed. Polling in this seat would be held on Thursday. Counting of votes of all the 403 seats would be held on March 11.
In the seventh phase, 1.41 crore electorate, including 64.76 lakh women, were eligible to exercise their franchise in 14,458 polling booths. Among the electorate 2, 42,414 are first time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years. There were 535 aspirants in the fray for the last phase, including 47 women. An estimated 22 per cent have criminal backgrounds while 25 per cent are crorepatis. Varanasi Cantonment has 24 candidates and Kerakat seat in Jaunpur district just six.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, out of these 40 seats, 23 went to SP, five to BSP, four to BJP, three to Congress and five to others. There are five UP ministers in the fray along in the last phase with president of regional party Bharatiya Samaj Party which is an alliance partner of the BJP.
Among the major contestants in the final phase are Parasnath Yadav (Malhani), Shailendra Yadav (Shahganj), Surendra Patel (Sevapuri) and Kailash Chaurasia (Mirzapur)—all ministers and Omprakash Singh (Jamania), senior SP leader. Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar (Zahurabad), Apna Dal president Krishna Patel (Rohania), Congress leaders Ajai Rai (Pindra), laliteshpati Tripathi (Marihan) and Nadim Javed (Jaunpur).
The candidates also included those with tainted and criminal background like Dhananjay Singh (Malhani), Mukhtar Ansari's brother Sibatullah Ansari (Mahumudabad), sharpshooter Munna Bajrangi's wife Seema Singh (Mariyahu), mafia don Brajesh Singh's nephew Sushil Singh (Saiyadraja) and rebel SP leader Vijay Mishra from Gyanpur in Bhadoi district.
The Election Commission had made elaborate security, including deployment of more than 700 companies of Central forces along with over one lakh policemen. Polling in the last phase was held in areas bordering the Naxalite prone regions of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.
Though the polling began on a dull note in the morning hours, it picked up with the rise of the mercury level and people were seen queuing in front of their booths. The polling ended in all the 40 seats at 5 pm except for three Naxalite infested constituencies-- Chakia in Chandauli district and Duddhi and Robertsganj in Sonebhadra district where the polling ended at 4 pm.