61 pc polling in phase-4 of UP polls

Lucknow: The fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls saw 61 per cent voting till 5 p.m., the Election Commission announced here on Thursday. Deputy Election Commissioner Vijay Dev told mediapersons that the polling percentage is expected to go up to 63 per cent. "The voting percentage was 61 per cent till 5 p.m. We hope it will go up to 63 per cent," he said. The 53 seats that went to the polls on Thursday had seen 59.9 per cent polling in the 2012 assembly polls, while it was 57.1 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The state is seeing seven phased election and the results will be declared on March 11. In all, 1.84 crore voters will use their franchise in the tight contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Of these, around one crore are male voters, 84 lakh women voters and 1,034 voters from the third gender. The fourth phase is especially significant for the Congress, as it had managed to wrest only six seats in the 2012 assembly polls in these constituencies. Besides, the parliamentary constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rae Bareli, is also voting in this phase. It is for the first time since 1998 that Sonia Gandhi has not campaigned in an election. However, on the eve of voting, she wrote a letter to the electorate seeking their support for the party and votes in favor of the party candidates. The Congress has struck an alliance with the ruling SP for the elections. The SP is contesting 298 seats and the Congress 105. But, out of the total seats voting on Thursday, there are 17 where both parties have fielded their nominees. There are a total of 680 candidates in the fray in the fourth phase, of which 61 are women. The assembly constituency with maximum number of candidates is Allahabad North, where 26 candidates are trying their luck at the hustings. The seats with least number of candidates are Khaga and Kunda, which have six candidates each. LIVE REPORT FROM ALLAHABAD LIVE REPORT FROM FATEHPUR (With agency inputs)