LUCKNOW: The trend of a low turnout in Uttar Pradesh continued as the state recorded a voting percentage of over 57 per cent across the 10 seats that went to the polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.
According to Election Commission figures, Agra witnessed 53.99 per cent voting, Aonla 57.08 per cent, Badaun 54.05 per cent, Bareilly 57.88 per cent, Etah 59.17 per cent, Fatehpur Sikri 57.09 per cent, Ferozabad 58.22 per cent, Hathras 55.36 per cent, Mainpuri 58.59 per cent and Sambhal 62.81 per cent.
The overall voter turnout in UP in Phase-III was 57.34 per cent and the figure is expected to be revised later. The voting percentage was lower than the 60.023 per cent in the corresponding phase in 2019. With the conclusion of phase-III, the fate of candidates in 26 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh has been sealed in EVMs.
The third phase of ensuing Lok Sabha polls was significant for the first family of the Samajwadi Party as three members of the Yadav clan were in the fray -- SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav in Mainpuri, the bastion of party patriarch late Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay in Ferozabad and Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya in Badaun.
Meanwhile, during the day, a group of Muslim women in Badaun's Sahaswan assembly segment claimed that they were stopped from casting their vote. They also alleged that the men accompanying them were beaten up by police.
However, Badaun District Magistrate Manoj Kumar refuted the charges, saying people who had already cast their votes were gathering unnecessarily and police had to move them away to maintain law and order.
Incidents of poll boycott were also reported from a number of places including Dhoranpur village of Badaun. Villagers boycotted the poll for the first three hours, saying their demand for a road was not fulfilled. Later, a sub-divisional magistrate reached the village and persuaded the local people to vote.
Reports of poll boycotts also came in from Nagla Jawahar, Neem Kheria and Nagla Umar villages in Ferozabad. However, later with the district administration's intervention, the villagers cast their votes.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that BJP workers were preparing to loot booths in Mainpuri without giving details. He also alleged rigging at some places.
In another allegation, BJP leader Prem Shankar Shakya said stones were pelted on him when he was going to vote along with the party's former district unit chief Pradeep Chauhan and others in Mainpuri's Kusmara area.
SP Badaun candidate Aditya Yadav alleged that the local administration did not allow party supporters to vote at various booths in Ujhani Sahaswan.
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 his party's workers and detained them.
