UP records 57.34% voter turnout in phase-III amid complaints from various pockets

LUCKNOW: The trend of a low turnout in Uttar Pradesh continued as the state recorded a voting percentage of over 57 per cent across the 10 seats that went to the polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.

According to Election Commission figures, Agra witnessed 53.99 per cent voting, Aonla 57.08 per cent, Badaun 54.05 per cent, Bareilly 57.88 per cent, Etah 59.17 per cent, Fatehpur Sikri 57.09 per cent, Ferozabad 58.22 per cent, Hathras 55.36 per cent, Mainpuri 58.59 per cent and Sambhal 62.81 per cent.

The overall voter turnout in UP in Phase-III was 57.34 per cent and the figure is expected to be revised later. The voting percentage was lower than the 60.023 per cent in the corresponding phase in 2019. With the conclusion of phase-III, the fate of candidates in 26 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh has been sealed in EVMs.

The third phase of ensuing Lok Sabha polls was significant for the first family of the Samajwadi Party as three members of the Yadav clan were in the fray — SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri, the bastion of party patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay in Ferozabad and Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya in Badaun.

Meanwhile, during the day, a group of Muslim women in Badaun’s Sahaswan assembly segment claimed that they were stopped from casting their vote. They also alleged that the men accompanying them were beaten up by police.

However, Badaun District Magistrate Manoj Kumar refuted the charges, saying people who had already cast their votes were gathering unnecessarily and police had to move them away to maintain law and order.