LS polls phase 3: Uttar Pradesh records 38.12% voter turnout till 1 pm

Lucknow: More than 38 per cent voters came out to cast their votes till 1 pm for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday.

The state witnessed 38.12 per cent polling till 1 pm in the third phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

While Agra witnessed 36.89 per cent polling, Aonla recorded a 36.95 per cent voter turnout, Budaun 34.97 per cent, Bareilly 34.93 per cent, Etah 38.87 per cent, Fatehpur Sikri 39.09 per cent, Firozabad 40.06 per cent, Hathras 37.73 per cent, Mainpuri 38.32 per cent and Sambhal 42.97 per cent, the Election Commission (EC) said.

Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. More than 1.89 crore voters are eligible to vote in these 10 constituencies.

Prominent among those who cast their votes are the Samajwadi Party's (SP) Akhliesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, their daughter Aditi Yadav, Ramgopal Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav and members of Yadav clan in Saifai (Etawah) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates S P Singh Baghel and Parmeshwar Lal Saini in Agra and Sambhal respectively.

SP President Akhilesh Yadav alleged that BJP men were preparing to loot booth in Mainpuri.

"There is a tussle going on within the BJP as to whose hand power should remain. Everyone understands this. The statements given by them (BJP leaders) are for self-appeasement. These people talk cleverly,” Yadav said.

In Budaun, the villagers of Dhoranpur boycotted the polling. They protested against politicians for not paying heed to their demand for a road. District Magistrate Manoj Kumar said the issue has come to his notice and a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) has been sent to the village.

Alleging that administration was not allowing to vote SP supporters, SP candidate Aditya Yadav in Budaun said there are various booths in Ujhani Sahsvan this is happening.

"I have made a complaint in this regard with EC observer and have give proof of police atrocities. We are only getting assurances," he said adding that water was poured on SP agents polling bag having voter slips.

Talking to reporters in Sambhal, SP candidate Zia-ur-Rehman Barq alleged that a circle officer doubled up as a BJP worker and snatched bags and voter slips from SP workers and detained them.

He requested the EC to remove the officer immediately.

Not a single vote was cast in three villages of Firozabad -- Nagla Jawahar, Neem Kheria and Nagla Umar -- as the villagers tried to draw the administration's attention to their problems.

It is an important phase for the family members of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

SP's Dimple Yadav is aiming to retain the Mainpuri seat, which she won in a by-poll following the death of her father-in-law and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Akshay Yadav, the son of SP national principal general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, will try to reclaim the Firozabad seat.

Aditya Yadav, the son of SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav, is making his electoral debut from the Budaun constituency, which was won by his cousin Dharmendra Yadav in 2014.

Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of 80 parliamentary constituencies among all the states. Polling in the state is spread across all seven phases from April 19 to June 1.

The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.