61% turnout in UP''s Phase 3 polling

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, February 19

Except for stray incidents of violence in Mainpuri, Etawah and Kanpur, the third  phase of polling for 69 seats in Uttar Pradesh went off peacefully with a voter turnout of 61.16 per cent, slightly higher than it was in 2012 (59.96%) and in 2014 ( 58.43%). 

Mohmoodabad in Sitapur recorded the highest voting percentage at 72.4 percent. Kanpur Cantt saw the lowest turnout at 50.01 per cent. With long queues outside booths even after 5 pm, the final turnout could touch 63 per cent, official sources said. This phase of polling was most crucial for the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) that had won 55 of the 69 seats in 2012.

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Kannauj, the parliamentary constituency of Dimple Yadav, wife of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, polled 65.63 per cent, a little higher than its previous showings.

Speaking to the media, Chief Electoral Officer T Venkatesh said the EC had sought reports on incidents of firing and lathi-charge in Mainpuri, Etawah and Jaswant Nagar. The CM’s estranged uncle, Shivpal Yadav, is the Samajwadi Party candidate from Jaswant Nagar. Here,  BJP and SP supporters reportedly indulged in stone-throwing. Shivpal’s convoy too was attacked. Also, there was a police lathi-charge outside one of the polling booths. 

Speaking to the media, Shivpal claimed he knew at whose behest this was done. “Polling was going on smoothly yet the police resorted to a lathi-charged without any reason. Women and children suffered injuries,” he  alleged. 

In Mainpuri, motorcycle-borne miscreants fired shots outside a booth in a bid to scare away voters. No one was hurt. Mainpuri and Etawah are part of the Yadav belt where the first family is fighting an intense factional battle.

In Kanpur’s Govindpuri and Kidwai Nagar there were reports of clashes between BJP and Congress supporters. In Auraiyya and Kanpur Dehat, voters boycotted polling in some booths because of  “development issues”.

In all, 2.12 lakh security personnel, including central forces, the state police and Home Guards, were deployed for the third round of polling. Among the prominent leaders who cast their vote today were Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, CM Akhilesh and his wife and Kannuaj MP Dimple Yadav in their ancestral village of Safai in Etawah and BSP chief Mayawati as well as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.