Polling will be held in these constituencies on Saturday. A total of 1,099 candidates are in the fray for this phase.
An impressive 62 to 64 pc turnout was on Wednesday registered in the
first phase of Assembly elections in 55 seats in Uttar Pradesh where
stakes are high for Mayawati's ruling BSP which is facing a tough
challenge from Congress, BJP and SP.After an initial lull due to rain, polling picked up quickly around midday as the skies cleared with 62-64 per cent of the 1.7 crore-strong electorate casting ballot on an incident-free day, Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said.
Wednesday's
polling was spread over 10 districts -- Sitapur, Barabanki, Faizabad,
Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharth Nagar
and Basti and held under tight security.
The first phase of elections for the 403-member assembly will decide the fate of two ministers, 31 MLAs and 15 former ministers.
There
are in all 796 men, 65 women and one eunuch in the fray. Long queues of
voters were seen at polling booths in several areas in late afternoon.
"The biggest problem was that of rain in the initial hours, but later the response from the electorate was good," Sinha said.
Amidst
complaints of EVM malfunctioning, a lower turnout was registered in
Bahraich district, while in Sitapur people boycotted polling in Gularia
village in Misrikh assembly seat to protest lack of development,
officials said.
In
Gonda, nearly 800 voters boycotted poll process at booth number 34 in
Mehnaun assembly seat to protest shifting of the polling station three
kilometres away from the village.
The
remaining phases of polling will be held on February 11, 15, 19, 23, 28
and March 3. Counting of votes will take place on March 6.
In
the 2007 Assembly polls, BSP had bagged 30 of the 55 seats where
elections were held on Wednesday and it would a tough challenge for the
party, hit by controversies due to corruption cases, to retain the
number.
Samajwadi Party is also under pressure to perform in these area to increase its tally from 18 seats last time.
As
far as BJP, which has talked about "Ramrajya", is concerned despite
Faizabad and Ayodhya falling in this phase, its performance had not been
up to the mark in past elections.
Congress, which had won a meagre three seats in the last polls, is banking on charisma of Rahul Gandhi.
In
the outgoing House, BSP has a strength of 220 seats followed by SP with
89, BJP 48, Congress 20, RLD 10 and nine independents among others.
Heavy
rain played a spoilsport in Basni Assembly seat in Siddharth Nagar with
not a single vote being cast in the first two hours, officials said.
Polling
also picked up in Faizabad in late afternoon where over 55 per cent
electorate cast their ballot as compared to 30 per cent in the first
four hours. In Ayodhya, voting crossed the 50 per cent mark till 3 PM.
Balrampur and Siddharth Nagar district witnessed a lower than average voting.
First
phase polling would decide the future of cabinet minister Lalji Verma,
minister of state Sangram Singh Verma, besides relatives of several MPs.
It
would be a litmus test for Congress leaders, including Union Steel
Minister Beni Prasad Verma and National Commission for Scheduled Caste
Chairman P L Punia as both of them represent the areas where voting took
place.
While
Gonda MP Verma's prestige would be at stake not only in seven Assembly
constituencies of his parliamentary area but also in Barabanki with his
son Rakesh contesting from Dariyabad seat there.
In
Delhi, Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla said, "The polling in
the first phase is at least 33 per cent higher than the overall turnout
in the previous assembly polls in 2007, which recorded a total of 46.6
per cent turnout."
Shukla,
who is incharge of elections in UP, said the polling percentage is
showing a continuous increase in the past few elections after the launch
of voter awareness campaigns by the EC.
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