UP local body elections: Over 40 per cent polling recorded till 3 pm

A voter turnout of 40.80 per cent was recorded till 3.00 pm in the final phase of the urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday with the Samajwadi Party alleging that supporters of the ruling BJP were indulging in election malpractices, especially in Kannauj.

The polling began at 7 am on Thursday in Meerut, Ghaziabad, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, and Ayodhya and will continue till 6 pm.

Polling was going on smoothly with 46.75 per cent turnout in Ayodhya, 38.61 per cent in Aligarh, 42.81 per cent in Etawah, 53.29 per cent in Gautam Buddh Nagar, 34.69 per cent in Ghaziabad, 32.84 per cent in Kanpur and 36.95 per cent in Bareilly till 3.00 pm, the election office said.

In a series of tweets, the main opposition Samajwadi Party accused members of the ruling party of indulging in fake voting in the Gursahaiganj polling booth of Kannauj.

It also alleged that BJP MP Subrat Pathak and his supporters were misbehaving with SP workers and voters at another booth in Kannauj, and appealed to the State Election Commission to take notice of it.

The main opposition party claimed that the husband of an Independent nominee in Kanpur's Ghatampur was shot at and also alleged that Dalits and OBCs were being denied voting rights.

There have been reports of six fake voters being caught at a polling booth in Mau district.

Bulandshahr District Magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh said that some people had made fake Aadhaar cards, and also fake identity cards of government employees. "We have detained 100 such people from different urban local bodies," he said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in his message to people, tweeted, "Today is the last phase of polling for the Uttar Pradesh Municipal elections 2023. All respected voters are appealed to participate in this festival of democracy to form a triple-engine government. Do vote. Your valuable vote will make your municipal corporation more empowered."

Triple-engine is a term being used by BJP leaders to refer to the party ruling at the Centre, state and local levels.

Prominent among the early voters were state Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, who exercised his franchise at a school located at Diwan Jograj, Cooperatives Minister JPS Rathore and PWD Minister Jitin Prasad at Sudama Prasad Vidyalaya in Shahjahanpur.

Speaker of the state Assembly Satish Mahana cast his vote in Kanpur and Minister of State (independent charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Arun Kumar in Bareilly.

Union minister General VK Singh (retd.) cast his vote in Ghaziabad, and in a tweet in Hindi said voting was absolutely necessary to elect a development-oriented public representative.

Union minister and Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, who cast her vote in Mirzapur, said efforts were on to ensure progress of the district. Apna Dal is an alliance partner of the ruling BJP.

The municipal elections gain significance as political parties are trying to showcase their electoral strength in Uttar Pradesh before the 2024 general elections. The state sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Shahjahanpur is voting to elect its first mayor. Meerut and Aligarh had BSP mayors in 2017 while the BJP ruled the rest.

The BSP has fielded Hasmat Malik from Meerut. The BSP candidate had won the mayoral elections in 1995, 2000 and then in 2017.

In Aligarh, the party has fielded Salman Sahid as its candidate.

Traditionally, Aligarh has been a bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has never lost this seat ever since the system of direct voting was introduced for the mayoral post in 1995. However, in 2017, the BSP's Mohammad Furqan won the mayoral contest.

This time, Aligarh is witnessing a triangular contest among the ruling BJP, principal opposition Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as well as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had campaigned for their party candidates in Aligarh.

According to the State Election Commission (SEC), over 1.92 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in the second phase. The first phase of voting was held on May 4. The counting of votes for both phases will take place on May 13.

As many as 39,146 candidates are in the fray in the second round for 6,929 posts, which includes seven mayors and 581 corporators. Apart from this, voting is also being held to elect 95 chairpersons and 2,520 members of nagar palika parishads, and 267 chairpersons and 3,459 members of various nagar panchayats.

The SEC said 77 representatives, including nine corporators, have been elected unopposed in this phase.

Meanwhile, Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said for a peaceful conduct of the polls, one lakh civil police personnel, 76 companies and two platoons of the PAC, 35 companies of CAPF and 7,935 under-training sub-inspectors have been deployed.