Lucknow, May 4 :Polling for the first phase of urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh which started at a slow pace picked up slightly as 19.7 per cent out of more than 2.40 crore votes were polled in the first 4 hours till 11 am on Thursday, a State Election Commission (SEC) spokesman said.The spokesman said that maximum 28.8 per cent votes were polled in Amroha, Prayagraj registered the lowest voter turnout of 9.68 per cent in the first 4 hours. Among other district 20 per cent votes were polled in Agra, 23.13 per cent in Unnao, 23.54 per cent in Kushinagar, 23.34 per cent in Kaushambi, 24 per cent in Ghazipur, 22.69 per cent in Gonda and 17 per cent in Gorakhpur, the home district of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.Similarly, 24.37 per cent votes were polled in Chandauli, 18 per cent in Jalaun, 18.91 per cent in Jaunpur, 17.9 per cent in Jhansi, 23.04 per cent Doeria, 19.73 per cent in Pratapgarh, 22.53 per cent in Fatehpur, 24.97 per cent in Firozabad, 24.37 per cent in Balrampur, 22.87 per cent in Bahraich, 21 per cent in Bijnor and 20 per cent in Mathura.
According to SEC data 22.97 per cent votes were polled in Maharajganj, 22.27 per cent in Muzaffarnagar, 19.33 per cent in Moradabad, 25 per cent in Mainpuri, 19 per cent in Rampur, 20.86 per cent in Rae Bareli, 11 per cent in Lucknow, 22.13 per cent in Lakhimpur Kheri, 20 per cent in Lalitpur and 24.8 per cent in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.In remaining district 27.5 per cent votes were polled in Shamli, 28.13 per cent in Shravasti, 21.95 per cent in Sambhal, 28.02 per cent in Saharanpur, 20.93 per cent in Sitapur and 26.34 per cent in Hardoi.
According to the reports some persons were detained by the police for bogus voting at a few places in the state. There were complaints related to names of voters missing from the electoral rolls, which deprived a number of people to cast their votes.The SEC spokesman said that polling is being held at 23,626 polling booths set up in 7,368 polling centers across the state peacefully as no untoward incident was reported so far. In this phase, voting is being held in 37 districts of nine divisions. Polling which began at 7 am will continue till 6 pm.In the first phase, voting for the post of mayor in 10 municipal corporations is being done through electronic voting machines (EVMs), while voting for 104 municipal council presidents and 276 Nagar panchayat presidents, 830 Councilors, 2,776 municipal members and 3,682 Nagar panchayat members is being held through ballot papers.In the first phase, 10 corporators, one chairperson of Nagar Palika Parishad and Nagar Panchayat each and 73 members have already been elected unopposed. The nine divisions covered in this phase are Saharanpur, Moradabad, Agra, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Devipatan.Tight security arrangements have been made to ensure fair and peaceful polling and Total 19,880 Inspectors and Sub-Inspector along with 1,01,477 head constables and constables and 47,985 home guards have been deployed on poll duty.In addition to the police force 86 companies and two platoons of PAC and 35 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have also been deployed. Besides, 7,500 under trainee SI have also been deployed for the purpose of election training.(UNI)