Live 27% voting till noon in fourth phase of UP polls

Hyderabad Feb 23 :Voting in 53 Assembly constituencies in the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh elections began at 7 a.m on Thursday.In all, 1.84 crore voters will use their franchise in the tight contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP)—Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Of these, around one crore are male voters, 84 lakh women voters and 1,034 voters from the third gender.

Live updates:Voters waiting in a queue to cast their votes at Banda in Bundelkhand.  

12:15 pm: An estimated 25 to 27 per cent of 1.84 crore voters exercised their franchise till midday today in the fourth phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.

11:15 am: An estimated 12 to 15 per cent of voters turned out to exercise their franchise till 10 am.

The pace of voting was initially slow but picked up gradually as the day advanced, the office of UP Chief Electoral Officer said.

10:00 am: 10.2% polling was recorded in the fourth phase of elections.

8:50 am: In Rae Bareli, Aditi Singh is contesting on Congress ticket, BSP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya’s son Utkarsh Maurya is in fray from Unchahar seat, while the Leader of Opposition Gaya Charan Dinkar is contesting from Naraini (Banda) seat.

Senior SP leader Reoti Raman Singh’s son Ujjwal Raman Singh is in the race from Karchana (Allahabad) seat.

8:30 am: The prominent contestants include sitting Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra from Rampur Khas (Pratapgarh), the daughter of MP Pramod Tiwari, and independent MLA and minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who is again contesting from his traditional Kunda (Pratapgarh) seat.

8:15 am: Patrolling by security forces has been intensified in poll-bound areas and most of the polling centres are manned by the central Para Military Forces.

8:00 am: As Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh votes in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections on Thursday, things appear to be poised for a three-way fight, reports Omar Rashid

7:30 am: The assembly constituency with maximum number of candidates is Allahabad North, where 26 candidates are trying their luck at the hustings.

The seats with least number of candidates are Khaga and Kunda, which have six candidates each, reports IANS.

7:15 am: There are a total of 680 candidates in the fray in the fourth phase, of which 61 are women.