UP polls: BJP is doing politics of hatred, division, says Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is doing politics of hatred and division in Uttar Pradesh.

After Yadav cast his vote during the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, he told ANI that several incidents of mismanagement were reported at different polling booths.

"I cast my vote today. Several incidents of mismanagement were reported at different polling booths. They (BJP) are not about local issues," he said.

The SP chief also claimed that the BJP is trailing despite complaints of tampering with EVM machines.

"BJP is doing politics of hatred and dividing people. There have been complaints at many places in the third phase of polling, complaints were made about machine malfunction at the polling booth. Despite this BJP is trailing," he said.

Uttar Pradesh recorded an average voter turnout of 61.02 per cent in the third phase of the assembly election.

A total of 59 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh voted in the third phase of polling in the seven-phased election on Sunday. Voting began at 7 am and went on till 6 pm.

Polling was held across 16 districts - Hathras, Firozabad, Etah, Kasganj, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, and Mahoba.

A total of 627 candidates were in the fray in the third phase of the election on Sunday.

The last phase of polling will take place on March 7 and the counting of votes will be done on March 10.