Voting picks pace in UP, 21% polling recorded

Lucknow, April 29 (IANS) Voting in Uttar Pradesh picked up pace as 21.18 per cent voting was recorded in the first four hours of polling for the 13 Lok Sabha seats on Monday till 11 a.m., officials said.

Shahjahanpur recorded 21.66 per cent voter turnout, Kheri 23.52 per cent, Hardoi 21.01 per cent, Misrikh 21.37 per cent, Unnao 21.23 per cent, Kanpur 19.88 per cent, Farrukhabad 21.68 per cent, Etawah 19.13 per cent, Kannauj 18.31 per cent, Akbarpur 19.62 per cent, Jalaun 18.84 per cent, Jhansi 25.33 per cent and Hamirpur 23.31 per cent.

Technical glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) reportedly delayed the balloting process in four polling booths in Kannauj's Chhibramau area. EVM malfunctioning stopped voting in Hamirpur.

A total of 2.38 crore people are eligible to exercise their franchise at 27,513 polling booths.

In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 12 seats barring Kannauj, which was won by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav.

This time, the BJP has dropped its sitting MPs from Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Misrikh and Etawah.

The SP-BSP alliance has fielded six BSP candidates and seven SP candidates. The Congress has fielded candidates from all constituencies barring Kannauj.

Prominent candidates in the race in the fourth phase of the general elections in the state are Dimple Yadav, former union Ministers and Congress leaders Salman Khurshid, who is contesting from Farrukhabad, and Sriprakash Jaiswal from Kanpur.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet Minister Satyadev Pachauri is also contesting from Kanpur after the party dropped sitting MP and veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. Sakshi Maharaj of the BJP is pitted against Congress' Annu Tandon from Unnao.