Voters brave sun to vote Around 60 pc turnout

Around 60 per cent voters exercised their franchise in 14 lok Sabha constituencies that went to poll on Wednesday.Voting in these constituencies spread over 17 districts of the central Uttar Pradesh was by and large peaceful barring minor clashes reported from Jhansi and Unnao.

Polling in the by-elections to Unnao and Fatehpur Assembly constituencies held simultaneously with the parliamentary elections also passed off peacefully.According to reports from Jhansi, Anirudh Sharma, son of Bahujan Samaj Party Anuradha Sharma, was attacked by some Samajwadi Party activists in Bamer area of Babina assembly segment when he protested rigging in a booth. 

Anirudh is also son-in-law of BSP general secretary Satish Mishra.Sources in the BSP here said Anirudh sustained deep cut injury on his leg and his car was smashed by the SP activists during the attack. later, the BSP lodged a protest with the Election Commission over the incident and demanded action against the assailants.

Clashes also took place in Bangarmau area of Unnao where supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party. Several persons received head injuries in the clash, the sources said. 

In Sitapur, an FIR was registered against ruling Samajwadi Party MlA Rampal Yadav when he tried to forcefully enter a polling booth.According to police, the MlA tried to enter a polling booth in Kutubpur village in Biswan area but the policemen stopped him. later, a minor scuffle took place between the supporters of the MlA and security personnel deployed at the polling booth. On the initiative of the police, an FIR has registered against the legislator and his supporters. Meanwhile, a sector magistrate on poll duty in Unnao died after a massive heart attack. 

Police said executive engineer of Unnao Development Authority, Bl Sharma (59), who was deployed as sector magistrate in Unnao Sadar assembly segment, died due to heart attack. By-election to Unnao Sadar Assembly seat was held simultaneously with the poll to Unnao parliamentary constituency.The voters tried to reach the booths as early as possible to avoid the scorching heat and the polling percentage fell as the sun rose high. According to sources in the election office here, around 60 per cent polling was reported on Wednesday.

Till 5 pm, Dhaurahra has recorded 62.80 per cent polling, Sitapur 59.40 per cent and Mishrikh 53.96 per cent. Unnao recorded 50.94 per cent polling, Mohanlalganj 56 per cent, lucknow 50.94 per cent, Rae Bareli 48.10 per cent  Kanpur 50.20 per cent, Jalaun 52 per cent, Jhansi 63 per cent, Hamirpur 49.10 per cent, Banda 47.52 per cent, Fatehpur 54.58 per cent and Barabanki 58.19 per cent.The polling percentage was 11.83 at 9 am, 24.78 at 11 am, 36.8 at 1 pm , 45.59 at 3 pm and 53.99 per cent at 5 pm.A report from Jaulan said that voters of 11 villages in the district boycotted polling in 13 booths of the constituency in protest against non-development of the area.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), BJP president Rajnath Singh and former state president of Congress, Rita Bahuguna Joshi (both lucknow), Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi (both Kanpur), Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Pradeep Jain Aditya, and BJP’s Uma Bharti (both Jhansi), National Schedule Castes Commission Chairman and Congress candidate Pl Punia (Barabanki), BJP’s Shakshi Maharaja and Anu Tandon of Congress (both Unnao) and Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Jitin Prasada, were the prominent politicians among the 233 candidates whose fate has been sealed in Wednesday’s poll.

In some rural and urban booths, voters reached polling booths much before 7 am to cast their votes.

long queues were seen in some booths even after 6 pm, EC sources said. There were over 2.46 crore voters in the fourth phase of poll in UP — 1.13 crore males and 1.12 crore females. The Election Commission had set up 25,380 polling booths for this phase and 3,554 of them were identified as being critical booths. In this phase, over 1,35,000 security personnel were deployed to conduct peaceful polling. Special security arrangements were made in the dacoit-infested Chitrakoot-Banda districts adjoining Madhya Pradesh on the Chambal ravines. 

Beside, security was tightened in the communally sensitive Kanpur and lucknow districts.UP’s Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said on Wednesday that polling was peaceful in all the 14 constituencies. He said there were reports of boycott of poll over local development issues.The Election Commission had deployed 14 general observers, 14 expenditure observers, along with four police observers and 8,913 micro observers in the fourth phase poll. It also deployed 1,09,641 poll personnel to conduct smooth polling.  

Additional Director General of Police (law and Order)  Mukul Goel, meanwhile, said here that polling was peaceful in all the constituencies and there was no report of any violence or any untoward report from anywhere. 

In the 2009 lok Sabha election, the average poll percentage in these constituencies was 47.99 but in 2012 assembly polls it rose to 61.56.lucknow had the highest number of 29 candidates followed by 21 each in Unnao and Kanpur. Jalaun had the lowest number of 11 candidates.Out of the 233 candidates contesting the fourth phase of lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, 39 were women; 36 have criminal records and 73 are crorepatis. The constituencies which went to election on Wednesday included Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Misrikh (SC), Unnao, Mohanlalganj (SC), lucknow, Rae Bareli, Kanpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur and Barabanki (SC).The Congress had won six of these seats in the 2009 poll, the BSP four and SP three and BJP one.