UP elections 4th phase: 624 candidates in fray, 57.45 per cent voting till 5 pm
As per the latest report from the Elections Commission of India, around 15 percent of voting has been taken place around 10 am.
Lucknow: Election for 59 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, including state capital Lucknow and Lakhimpur Kheri, ends at 5PM on Wednesday. The voters turnout is 57.45 per cent till 5 pm.
Forth phase elections are going on spreading across nine states in the state. Five seats under Raebareli, the bastion of Sonia Gandhi, are also voting. The seats are spread across the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur. 8 people including four farmers were mowed down by SUV allegedly owned by Union Minister’s son Ashish Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri last year.
This phase of polling will decide the fate of 624 candidates in 59 Assembly segments in the districts of Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur.
Fourth phase #UttarPradeshElections voter turn out till 5 pm- 57.45% with Kheri (Lakhimpur Kheri) recording highest turnout at 62.42%, followed by Pilbhit 61.33% and Raebareili 58.40% pic.twitter.com/QFH84TLPtC
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2022
In 2017, the BJP bagged 51 seats, four had gone to the Samajwadi Party, two to the Congress and two to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. BJP's ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had bagged one seat.
The Uttar Pradesh farmers are unhappy over the Centre's contentious farm laws, were hugely upset after Ashish Mishra's SUV mowed down four of them. The farmers have challenged Ashish Mishra's bail in the Supreme Court.
In Congress Raebareli, the party is facing stiff challenges as its MLA - Aditi Singh who switched over to the BJP ahead of the polls is contesting on the lotus symbol. Singh, who had won the seat in 2017 for the Congress, crossed over to the BJP in November last year. She is the daughter of senior Congress leader Akhilesh Kumar Singh.
Eight seats in Lakhimpur are wrested by BJP in 2017 Assembly elections. Both the BJP and the SP have repeated their candidates on the Lakhimpur city seat. The BJP's Yogesh Verma, who won the seat in the 2017 polls, will again face Samajwadi Party's Utkarsh Verma Madhur. The Congress has fielded Ravi Shankar Trivedi.
The nine assembly seats in the state capital Lucknow will vote today. The keenly watched contests will include Sarojini Nagar - where Rajeshwar Singh, the former joint director of Enforcement Directorate is in a straight fight against Abhishek Mishra, former IIM professor and a close aide of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, NDTV reports.
State Law Minister Brijesh Pathak is facing Samajwadi party candidate and two-time Corporator Surendra Singh Gandhi in Lucknow Cantonment. State minister Ashutosh Tandon is in the fray from Lucknow East against Anurag Bhadauria, the Samajwadi Party candidate.
