Over 56% turnout in last phase of UP assembly elections

Over 56 per cent turnout was recorded on Monday in 54 assembly seats, including in Varanasi, in the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh polls, marking the end of the voting process spread over two months in the crucial state.

The counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh as well as in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will be on March 10.

Voting started at 7 am and ended at 6 pm, except in Naxal-hit Chakia (Chandauli), Robertsganj and the Duddhi (Sonbhadra) seats where it concluded at 4 pm.

The voting percentage was recorded at 56.77 per cent, according to the Election Commission.

The polling percentage in the seventh phase in the 2017 Assembly elections in 2017 was 59.56 per cent.

No untoward incident was reported from the state, Additional Chief Electoral Officer BDR Tiwari said.

Chandauli saw a relatively high turnout of 61.99 per cent and Varanasi 58.80 per cent.

Azamgarh witnessed 53.82 per cent voting, Bhadohi 56.90 per cent, Ghazipur 56.54 per cent, Jaunpur 56.17 per cent, Mau 57.02 per cent, Mirzapur 54.93 per cent and Sonbhadra 58.69 per cent.

The final polling figure will be available on Tuesday, an official said.

The state has seen a decrease in voter turnout in the last three phases.

In the previous six phases, the state recorded a turnout of 62.43 per cent, 64.42 per cent, 62.28 per cent, 61.52 per cent, 57.32 percent and 55.79 per cent.

The state had recorded 61.24 per cent polling in the 2017 assembly elections.

A total of 613 candidates were in the fray for the 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi, in the final phase.

The fate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar and several state ministers was decided in this round, in which 2.06 crore people were eligible to vote.

Besides state Tourism Minister Neelkanth Tiwari, who is contesting for the Varanasi South seat, other ministers in the fray in the last leg of the elections are Anil Rajbhar (Shivpur-Varanasi), Ravindra Jaiswal (Varanasi North), Girish Yadav (Jaunpur) and Ramashankar Singh Patel (Marihan-Mirzapur).

Dara Singh Chauhan, who resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP), is contesting from the Ghosi seat in Mau.

Om Prakash Rajbhar (Zahoorabad), Dhananjay Singh (Malhani-Jaunpur) as the Janata Dal-United candidate, and Abbas Ansari, the son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, from Mau Sadar seat, are also contesting in this phase.

Campaigning in this phase reached its crescendo with Modi leading the BJP's poll blitzkrieg in Varanasi and its adjoining districts.

The state has 403 Assembly seats.

Several exit polls on Monday forecast a clear majority in Uttar Pradesh and an edge in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party while the Aam Aadmi Party is predicted to win in Punjab, where the Congress was in power.