- Third and final phase of Uttar Pradesh local body elections saw a 53% turnout
- Over 50% voting was recorded in the second phase in 25 districts on 26 November
The first phase of the elections took place in 24 districts on 22 November - Polling was held for five municipal corporations, 71 nagar palika parishads, and 154 nagar panchayats
- Results will be declared on 1 December
Third Phase Sees 53% Voter Turnout
The third and final phase of the polls witnessed a voter turnout of 53 per cent – comparatively higher than the 2012 turnout of 51.57 percent.
The voting progressed peacefully, with a few complaints about voters’ names missing and malfunctioning of EVMs. When asked about the complaints regarding the EVMs, State Election Commissioner SK Agarwal said that 503 units were replaced out of the 32,374 in use across the state.
“Re-polling was held in three booths simultaneously with today's voting,” Agarwal said.
Some of the districts that went to polls on Wednesday, 29 November were Saharanpur, Firozabad, Kannauj, Moradabad, Bareilly and Jhansi.
The overall percentage recorded an improvement from 46.2 percent in 2012 to 52.5 percent this time.
Second Phase Sees 50% Voter Turnout
The second phase of the polls saw an average voter turnout of over 50 percent. A total of 1.3 crore electors in 25 districts were eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase. In 2012, the polling percentage in these districts was 43.67.
Voting was held today in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Allahabad, parts of western Uttar Pradesh and state capital Lucknow, where Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma were among the first few to vote.
Another deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, cast his ballot in Allahabad.
The last and final phase of polling will be held on 29 November.
MLAs Sweat it Out to Ensure BJP's Victory in UP Civic Polls
Leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the saffron party emerges victorious in the ongoing urban local bodies polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has assigned tasks to 31 MLAs, whose Assembly constituencies do not have a nagar panchayat or nagar palika parishad within their limits.
"Different tasks have been assigned to the 31 MLAs, ranging from actively campaigning for the party candidates to organising various events to galvanise public support for the party," state BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi told PTI.
"Take for example Satish Chandra Dwivedi. He is an MLA from the Itwa Assembly constituency in Siddharthanagar district. But, since there is no nagar panchayat or nagar palika parishad in Itwa, he has been engaged in party activities in the neighbouring Basti district," he added.
When contacted, Dwivedi said, "From election management to other tasks, I have discharged whatever duty was assigned to me by the party."
Asserting that the saffron party's show had been "great" in the first phase of the urban local bodies election, he exuded confidence that it would "sweep" the polls.
Issues With Voters' List in Several Areas
According to reports, areas in Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Shahjahanpur faced issues wih respect to the voters’ list. Muhalla Hanumanpuri in Lucknow was totally missing from the voter list.
People residing in Muzaffarnagar’s Thakurdwara raised a banner of protest after many of their names were missing in the list.