Lucknow. In the sixth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, 55.70 per cent votes were cast on Thursday for 57 seats in 10 districts. The highest voter turnout of 62.22 percent was recorded in Ambedkar Nagar district. Balrampur district proved to be the worst in terms of voting. There was 49.64 percent voting. Assembly wise, the highest voter turnout was recorded in Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar at 63.25 and Bairiya in Ballia at 47.50 per cent. In the 2017 elections, a total of 56.52 percent votes were cast in these 57 seats. Polling was peaceful except for sporadic complaints. With this, the fate of 676 candidates, including 66 women, has been sealed in the EVMs.
In the sixth phase of UP assembly elections, polling was held in Gorakhpur, Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria and Ballia districts. The Election Commission had made tight security arrangements for fair and fear-free polling. Voting began at 7 am amid the presence of central forces. In the first two hours i.e. till 9 am, only 8.69 per cent voting was done. The polling till 11 am in the day was 21.79 percent. After this the voting picked up speed and till 1 pm in the day, 36.33 per cent votes had been cast. The polling was 53.31 per cent at 5 pm. It was time to vote at 6 pm, but due to long queues at polling booths in many districts, voting continued till late.
In the matter of voting, all the Legislative Assemblies of Ambedkarnagar district have passed in the First Division. 63.25 in Akbarpur, 63 in Katehri, 62.67 in Jalalpur, 62 in Tanda and 60 percent in Alapur. 47.94 in Utraula of Balrampur, 48.12 in Balrampur Sadar, 52 in Gainsdi and 51 percent in Tulsipur. In Ballia’s Bairia, 47.50 percent votes were cast in Chief Minister Yogi’s Legislative Assembly, in Gorakhpur city 55.20 percent and Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary’s Bansdih Legislative Assembly, Ballia, 53.08 percent. In Gorakhpur’s Pipraich, 62.87 per cent, Sahjanwa 61.46 and Bansgaon 49.10 per cent. 60.67 percent votes were cast in Maharajganj, 60.52 in Paniyara, 60.35 percent in Siswa.
Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said that on Thursday, votes were cast at 25,326 polling booths in 13,936 polling stations. Of these, 1113 were Adarsh polling stations while 76 pink booths were set up, in which only women employees were deployed. Wheel chairs and volunteers were arranged at different places in the districts for the differently-abled voters.
851 companies of central paramilitary forces were deployed to conduct the polls in a fair, fear-free and peaceful manner. The Commission had also deputed a Senior General Observer, a Senior Police Observer and two Senior Expenditure Observers to oversee the election process. Apart from this, 56 general observers, 10 police observers and 18 expenditure observers were already posted. A total of 1,10,281 personnel were deployed for the elections.
220 complaints registered for violation of code of conduct: In the sixth phase, a total of 220 complaints of violation of model code of conduct have been registered. These complaints have been lodged by Flying Squad, Static Surveillance Team and others. Legal action is being taken against them. Apart from this, 206 complaints have been lodged by the people of the state directly on the mobile app C-Vigil. During the investigation, 76 complaints were found to be true, action has been taken on them.
64,611 voters cast their votes by postal ballot: In the sixth phase, 64,611 voters cast their votes through postal ballot. A total of 91,027 postal ballots were given to four categories of persons above 80 years of age, differently abled, essential services and polling personnel. Apart from this, postal ballots have also been sent electronically to 24,124 service voters.
About 1.5 percent replaced EVMs: In the sixth phase, less than 1.5 percent EVMs have been damaged. In the morning, 0.31 percent of ballot units, 0.50 percent of control units and 0.81 percent of VVPATs were replaced due to malfunction. After this, 0.27 percent of the ballots and the same number of control units were changed during the voting. Similarly VVPATs have also been changed by 1.71 percent.
Reputation of many including Yogi, Ram Govind Chaudhary at stake: In the sixth phase of elections, the reputation of many prominent leaders including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary is at stake. Yogi is contesting from Gorakhpur city seat while Leader of Opposition is fighting from Bansdih of Ballia. While Basic Education Minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi is in the fray from Etawa seat, SP’s strongman and former Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey is contesting against him. Swami Prasad Maurya is the SP candidate from Fazilnagar seat. Similarly, Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu is contesting from Tamkuhiraj in Kushinagar. Prominent names among BSP candidates are contesting from state president Umashankar Singh Rasra. Agriculture Minister Suryapratap Shahi from Deoria’s Pathardeva seat, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh from Bansi seat of Siddharthnagar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Horticulture, Gorakhpur, Shri Ram Chauhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Sports and Youth Welfare from Ballia’s Phephna, Upendra Tiwari, Minister of State for Rural Development Anand Swaroop Shukla from Bairia seat and Jai Prakash Nishad, Minister of State for Livestock from Chaurichaura Vidhan Sabha constituency of Gorakhpur are also trying their luck. Lalji Verma from Katehri seat of Ambedkarnagar and Ram Achal Rajbhar from Akbarpur are contesting on SP ticket.
What is the percentage of voting in which district?
- District – Year 2017 – Year 2022
- Ambedkarnagar – 64.05 – 62.22
- Ballia – 54.39 – 53.93
- Balrampur – 50.91 – 49.64
- Basti – 57.46 – 56.81
- Deoria – 56.82 – 55.10
- Gorakhpur – 55.44 – 56.23
- Kushinagar – 58.16 – 57.28
- Maharajganj – 62.21 – 59.63
- Sant Kabir Nagar – 53.01 – 54.39
- Siddharthnagar – 52.26 – 50.38
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