By IANS,
Lucknow : About 34 percent voter turnout was recorded in the first six hours in the 18 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh where polling was going on Thursday, officials said.
“The highest turnout was recorded at 34 percent in Muzaffarnagar. It was followed by Mainpuri at 31 percent. The lowest turnout was 25 percent in Etah,” an official at the state election office told IANS.
Polling began at 7 a.m. at each of the 29,312 polling stations across 20 districts of the state.
Prominent among the 314 candidates in the fray are three former chief ministers – Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh.
While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh is contesting the polls from Ghaziabad, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is fighting from Mainpuri and Kalyan Singh is contesting as an independent with SP support from Etah.
As many as 25.6 million voters have the right to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of the candidates.
In all, 29,649 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being used for the polling Thursday.
While 48 seats have gone to the polls in the first three phase of polls, voting will be held in 14 in the last phase May 13.