Over 35 per cent voting in UP till 1 pm; EVM glitches reported

PTI

Lucknow, February 10

Amid reports of technical snag in EVMs at some places, polling is going on peacefully in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday with an average of over 35 per cent votes being cast till 1 pm, Election Commission officials said.

The first phase of polling, which started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, is being held in 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state.

"Average 35.03 per cent polling was witnessed in UP till 1 pm," an Election Commission (EC) official said.

Additional Chief Election Officer (ACEO) BD Ram Tiwari said polling is going on peacefully.

"There were reports of a technical error in EVMs at some places. Those EVMs are being replaced," he said.

On Samajwadi Party's allegation that poor voters were not allowed to exercise their franchise at Dundukheda village in Kairana assembly constituency, Tiwari said the District Magistrate concerned had been asked to look into the matter.

Till 1 am, Agra recorded 36.93 per cent polling, Aligarh 32.07 per cent, Baghpat 38.01 per cent, Bulandshahr 37.03 per cent, Gautam Buddh Nagar 30.53 per cent, Ghaziabad 33.4 per cent, Hapur 39.97 per cent, Mathura 36.26 per cent, Meerut 34.51 per cent, Muzaffarnagar 35.73 per cent and Shamli 41.16 per cent, an EC report said.

As many as 623 candidates including 73 women are in the fray in the first phase and around 2.28 crore voters including 1.24 crore men and 1.04 women besides others are eligible to cast their franchise, officials of the state election commission said.

The state ministers whose fate will be decided in the first phase of voting include Shrikant Sharma, Suresh Rana, Sandeep Singh, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Atul Garg and Chowdhury Lakshmi Narain.

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