45 percent vote in third phase in Uttar Pradesh

By IANS,

Lucknow : The country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh recorded 45 percent voting in the third phase of elections Thursday, Election Commission said. More than half of the state’s 22.3 million voters chose to stay away from polling.


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Officials said that no untoward incident was reported from any of the 15 constituencies that went to polls.

The state capital Lucknow recorded another abysmally low voter turnout at 34.6 percent. “However, it was better than the 31 percent in 2004,” quipped a returning officer here.

The state’s prominent VIP constituency Rae Bareli, from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election, polled a relatively respectable 46 percent. This is higher than her son Rahul’s constituency Amethi that recorded 39 percent polling during the second phase April 23.

The fate of 256 candidates was decided at 24,976 polling booths spread across 15 constituencies. The state has a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats.

The highest turnout was reported from Jhansi and Sitapur where as many as 51 percent voters came out to exercise their franchise.

Mohanlalganj, adjacent to Lucknow, had the lowest number of seven candidates and saw 43 percent turnout.

Kanpur, the state’s key industrial hub, witnessed 39 percent polling. Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal is seeking his third term from there.

Fatehpur, where the key tussle is between son and grandson of former prime ministers, recorded 43 percent turnout.

Former prime minister V.P. Singh’s son Ajeya Singh is contesting against Congress nominee Vibhakar Shastri, who is the grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Both are first-timers in electoral politics.

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