Amid tight security, 57.36 percent of 1.81 crore electorates on Monday cast their votes during the fifth phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.
“Polling held peacefully, in 51 Assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts of the state. Over 57.36 percent voter turnout was recorded,” poll officials said.
The exercise was slow in the first two hours but picked up pace gradually, with the first-time voters seen exercising their franchise quite enthusiastically.
Prominent contestants in this phase include controversial minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati from the ruling Samajwadi Party, who is facing Amita Singh from Congress and BJP’s Garima Singh in Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi.
Prajapati, against whom an FIR has been lodged in an alleged rape case, said the people were with him and there was a strong wave in the favour of ruling SP. “Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will become the CM again,” he claimed.
Amita, wife of Congress leader Sanjay Singh, hoped people would support the best candidate and she will definitely win.
Garima, the first wife of Sanjay, on the other hand said there was no development in the constituency and people were facing problems.
The districts going to polls in this phase were Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
Faizabad is another hot seat with BJP’s Ram Temple issue once again figuring in its manifesto this time.
Ayodhya Assembly seat, which falls in Faizabad district, used to be a traditional stronghold of BJP since the Ram Temple movement days. But it was snatched by SP in 2012 and this time the saffron party is trying to wrest it back.
Due to death of SP candidate Chandrashekhar Kanaujia in Alapur (Ambedkar Nagar), the EC has announced fresh date of voting in this constituency on March 9.
The turnout in these constituencies in 2012 was 57.09 percent.
