Lucknow: An average of 8.58 percent votes were cast till 9 am on Monday during the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections (UP Election Final Phase Voting). Voting under the seventh and final phase of elections in nine districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi, began at 7 am on Monday. State Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said on Sunday that in the seventh phase till 9 am, an average of 8.58 percent votes were cast.
The average voter turnout was 8.08 percent in Azamgarh, 7.41 percent in Bhadohi, 7.72 percent in Chandauli, 8.39 percent in Ghazipur, 8.99 percent in Jaunpur, 9.97 percent in Mau, 8.81 percent in Mirzapur, 8.39 percent in Sonbhadra and 8.90 percent in Varanasi. He said polling was going on peacefully and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere. The Chief Electoral Officer said that the polling in Chakia in Chandauli district and Robertsganj and Duddhi assembly constituencies of Sonbhadra district will continue till 4 pm. Voting will be held in the remaining 51 assembly constituencies till 6 pm.
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Shukla informed that 2.06 crore voters will be able to exercise their franchise in the seventh phase. Of these, 1.09 crore are male, 97.08 lakh female and 1027 transgender voters. In this phase, 613 candidates are in the fray in 54 assembly constituencies out of which 75 are women candidates. Of the 54 seats in the seventh phase, 11 are reserved for scheduled castes and two for scheduled tribes. Shukla informed that a total of 23,614 polling stations and 12,210 polling stations have been set up for the seventh phase of elections.
The Commission has also deployed 52 General Observers, nine Police Observers and 17 Expenditure Observers to keep a watchful eye on the polling. Apart from this, 1,621 Sector Magistrates, 195 Zonal Magistrates, 222 Static Magistrates and 2,796 Micro Supervisors have also been deployed. A Senior General Observer, a Senior Police Observer and two Senior Expenditure Observers have also been deployed by the Commission at the state level, who are supervising the entire election process by staying in the area.
It is noteworthy that in these 54 seats in the seventh phase of the 2017 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies Apna Dal (S) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SubhSP) got a total of 36 seats. Of these, BJP got 29 seats, Apna Dal (S) got four and SubhaSP got three seats. At the same time, Samajwadi Party (SP) got 11, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got six and Nishad Party got one seat.
The Nishad Party, which last fought on its own in 2017, is in alliance with the BJP this time, while the SubhaSP has tied up with the SP. The electoral fate of many ministers of Uttar Pradesh will be decided in the last phase of the elections. These include Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari (Varanasi South), Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur). Apart from this, just before the assembly elections, former minister Dara Singh Chauhan (Ghosi-Mau) left the BJP and left the BJP and left the BJP this time in alliance with the SP, and former minister Om Prakash Rajbhar (Jahurabad-Ghazipur), gangster Voting is also going on in the same phase in the seat of candidate-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari (Mau Sadar) and Bahubali former MP Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur).
It is noteworthy that in the preceding six phases of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, polling has been completed in 349 assembly constituencies. Voting is on for the last phase. The results of the seven-phased assembly elections in the state will be declared on March 10. (agency)