LUCKNOW: About 10.27 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the first two hours for the third phase of the panchayat elections which began on Monday with more than 2.72 lakh candidates in the fray in over 2.14 lakh seats across 20 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Polling is underway in Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthanagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Ballia.
"Voting started at 7 am on a peaceful note. It will continue till 6 pm. In the first two hours (till 9 am) 10.27 per cent voting was done," a State Election Commission (SEC) official said here.
While Kanpur Dehat and Moradabad each recorded the highest 12 per cent polling, Deoria had minimum of nine per cent voting till 9 am, he said.
For 746 posts of zila panchayat members 10,416 candidates are in the fray while 88,584 people are contesting for 18,530 posts of Kshetra Panchayat members.
As many as 1,16,162 candidates are contesting for 14,379 village panchayats and 57,649 candidates for 1,80,473 village panchayat wards.
In both the first and second phase of the elections, 71 per cent votes were polled.
Voting for the fourth phase will be held on April 29 and counting will be held on May 2.
The Allahabad High Court had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to conclude the panchayat election process by May 25.