Lucknow: Voting for 58 assembly seats in 11 districts of the state began at 7 am on Thursday under the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. According to the latest information, till 11 am, around 20 percent voting had been done. According to the information received from the Election Commission office, the voting work for the first phase of elections started at 7 am under the COVID protocol, which will continue till 6 pm and till 11 am, an average of 20.03 percent votes were cast.
According to the information, till 11 am, on an average, 20.30 percent in Agra, 17.91 in Aligarh, 22.30 in Baghpat, 21.62 in Bulandshahr, 19.23 in Gautam Buddha Nagar, 18.24 in Ghaziabad, 22.80 in Hapur, 20.73 in Mathura, 18.54 in Meerut, 22.65 in Muzaffarnagar. And in Shamli, 22.83 percent voting has taken place. The Samajwadi Party has complained to the Election Commission alleging that poor voters were sent back by intimidation at some polling booths of Kairana assembly.
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Tagging the Election Commission and the District Magistrate of Shamli, the party tweeted, “By intimidating the voters of the poor class at booth numbers 347, 348, 349 and 350 of village Dundukheda, Kairana-8 assembly of Shamli district, on the lines of the vote. removed and sent back. The Election Commission should take immediate cognizance and take action and ensure smooth, fear-free, fair voting. On the other hand, there is also information about the arrest of a youth who came to Baghpat for alleged fake voting. Initially, complaints of irregularities in electronic voting machines were received at some places, which were resolved after some time. In the first phase, polling is being held in Shamli, Hapur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra districts. The first phase of elections is being held in a Jat dominated area.
20.03% voter turnout recorded till 11am in the first phase of #UttarPradeshElections2022 pic.twitter.com/yfu2hkcryy
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 10, 2022
In this phase, the political fate of a total of 623 candidates including state government ministers Shrikant Sharma, Suresh Rana, Sandeep Singh, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Atul Garg and Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan will be decided. These include 73 women candidates. State Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said that the Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements and security arrangements for conducting the elections in a fair, safe and peaceful manner. In view of COVID-19, adequate arrangements have been made for thermal scanners, sanitizers, gloves, masks, soap, water etc. at the polling places.
He said that 2.28 crore voters would be able to exercise their franchise in the first phase of polling. Of these, 1.24 crore are male, 1.04 crore female and 1448 are transgender voters. Shukla informed that a total of 10,853 polling stations and 26027 polling places have been set up for the first phase of elections. 48 General Observers, eight Police Observers and 19 Expenditure Observers have also been deployed to keep a watchful eye on the polling. Apart from this, 2,175 Sector Magistrates, 284 Zonal Magistrates, 368 Static Magistrates and 2718 Micro Observers have also been deployed.
He told that in the absence of voter ID card, vote can be cast using 12 options including Aadhar card, MNREGA job card, PAN card and driving license. In the last assembly elections held in 2017, the BJP had won 53 out of 58 seats in the first phase, while the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party got two seats each. Apart from this, a candidate of Rashtriya Lok Dal also won.