Lucknow: In the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections, 27.06 percent voting took place in 14 seats of Uttar Pradesh till 11 am on Saturday. Voting for by-elections on 14 Lok Sabha seats and one assembly seat of the state began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
In the sixth phase, the electoral fate of 162 candidates including former union minister Maneka Gandhi, Trinamool Congress’s Lalitesh Pati Tripathi and Bhojpuri film actor Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua will be decided. According to the Election Commission, till 11 am, 23.88 percent voting took place in Allahabad, 30.02 percent in Ambedkarnagar, 28.60 percent in Azamgarh, 29.80 percent in Basti, 25.51 percent in Bhadohi, 27.74 percent in Dumariyaganj, 26.81 percent in Jaunpur, 28.40 percent in Lalganj, 27.18 percent in Machhlishahr, 22.85 percent in Phulpur, 26.35 percent in Pratapgarh, 27.35 percent in Sant Kabir Nagar, 26.69 percent in Shravasti and 28.05 percent in Sultanpur.
Till 11 am, 26.04 per cent votes were cast in the by-election to the Gasdi assembly seat in Balrampur district.
Re-polling also began at the scheduled time at the polling booth in village Khiriya Pamaran of Thana Nayagaon in Etah district, which falls in Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency. Here, during the voting on May 13, a 17-year-old boy allegedly cast fake vote seven times in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, after the video of which became public, the commission took immediate action and cancelled the voting.
On Saturday, re-polling at this polling station also began at 7 am and queues of voters started forming in the morning itself. State Chief Election Officer Navdeep Rinwa said that voting for the by-election on 14 Lok Sabha seats and Gasdi assembly seat in the sixth phase in the state began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
According to Rinwa, a total of 162 candidates including 146 men and 16 women are in the fray for 14 Lok Sabha seats, while seven candidates are contesting for the Gasdi assembly seat. According to the commission, more than 2 crore 70 lakh voters will decide the fate of 162 candidates in the sixth phase. Among them, there are more than 1 crore 43 lakh male and 1 crore 27 lakh female voters, while there are 1,256 ‘third gender’ voters.
Rinwa said that there are a total of 28,171 polling booths and 17,113 polling centres in the sixth phase of elections. Out of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of the sixth phase, two seats, Lalganj and Machhlishahr, are reserved for scheduled castes, while the remaining 12 seats are of general category.
According to the news received from Siddharth Nagar, not a single vote was cast till 8:30 am in booth number 159, Gram Sabha Pokharakaji in Dumariyaganj Lok Sabha constituency. Villagers are boycotting the elections as they are angry over the non-construction of the road.
According to Director General of Police Prashant Kumar, 8,840 inspectors and sub-inspectors, 68,191 head constables and constables, 48,091 Home Guard jawans, 49 companies of PAC force, 229 companies of CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) have been arranged to ensure smooth conduct of the sixth phase of polling. In Sultanpur, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Maneka Gandhi is pitted against Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Rambhual Nishad and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Udayraj Verma.
On the Allahabad seat, former Governor Keshrinath Tripathi’s son and BJP candidate Neeraj Tripathi is pitted against Congress candidate and former minister Ujjwal Raman Singh, a constituent of the ‘India’ (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) alliance. On the Azamgarh seat, outgoing BJP MP Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua is pitted against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav. Dharmendra Yadav lost to Nirahua in the by-election held on this seat in 2022.
In Bhadohi, the BJP has fielded MLA Vinod Kumar Bind in place of its outgoing MP Ramesh Bind, against whom the ‘India’ alliance has fielded Lalitesh Pati Tripathi of the Trinamool Congress. Lalitesh, the fourth generation of Congress working president and former chief minister of the state Pandit Kamalapati Tripathi, has been a Congress MLA in Mirzapur district. Dr. SP Yadav, elected in 2022 from the Gasdi assembly seat, died earlier this year, necessitating a by-election here.