A voter turnout of 54.02 per cent was recorded till 6 pm on Saturday in 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh where polling was held in the sixth phase of parliamentary elections on Saturday.
UP’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said here that the polling percentage of 54 per cent was the final figure. He said polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies which went to polls on Saturday. He said complaints relating to malfunction of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported from several constituencies and were promptly addressed.
He said the voter turnout in Sultanpur was 55.50 per cent, in Pratapgarh 51.60 per cent, in Phulpur 48.94 per cent, in Allahabad 51.75 per cent, in Ambedkar Nagar 61.54 per cent, in Shravasti 52.76 per cent, in Domariyaganj 51.94 per cent, in Basti 56.67 per cent, in Sant Kabir Nagar 52.63 per cent, in Lalganj (SC) 54.14 per cent, in Azamgarh 56.07 per cent, in Jaunpur 55.52 per cent, in Machhlishahr (SC) 54.43 per cent and in Bhadohi 53.07 per cent.
In the bypoll to the Gainsari assembly seat in Balrampur district, the voter turnout was 51.10 per cent. In the repoll in a polling station falling under Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency where polling was held on Saturday, the voter turnout was 73.99 per cent.
The CEO said webcasting was arranged for ensuring free, fair and transparent polling in 14,480 polling booths and videography was done in other 5,087 polling stations. He said the live streaming was monitored at three levels – district, state and at Election Commission of India, Delhi.
However, incidents of intimidation, fake voting were reported from several constituencies.
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party on Saturday alleged that SP’s Ambedkar Nagar candidate Lalji Verma was put under house arrest at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Lalji Verma is locked in a direct contest with Ritesh Pandey of the BJP.
SP leader Arvind Kumar Singh wrote to the chief electoral officer, alleging that the Ambedkar Nagar administration was influencing the elections by keeping the SP candidate under house arrest.
In a post on X, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Police were sent to raid the house of SP’s winning Ambedkar Nagar candidate Lalji Verma but the police were not supposed to find anything and they did not find anything. This is an attempt to tarnish the honest image of Lalji Verma. Highly condemnable! This is the frustration of the losing BJP.”
In Allahabad, Phulpur and Pratapgarh, a stiff contest was witnessed between the INDIA Bloc and the BJP. Praveen Singh Patel, sitting MLA is the BJP candidate from Phulpur and he is facing Amarnath Maurya of SP.
In Allahabad, Neeraj Tripathi, son of former UP Assembly Speaker Keshari Nath Tripathi, is the BJP candidate while Ujjwal Ram Singh, former SP MLA who joined the Congress ahead of the election, is the INDIA Block candidate. Sangamlal Gupta is the BJP candidate from Pratapgarh while SP Singh Patel is the SP candidate.
Reoti Raman Singh, former MP and father of Congress candidate Ujjwal Raman Singh, was detained by the police for a few hours after he had a heated exchange with the police officers at Kareli polling station of Allahabad constituency. In the Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency, the SP candidate Amarnath Maurya had a heated exchange with the police over the alleged intimidation of Muslim voters.
