Lok Sabha polls: Uttar Pradesh records over 43 pc voter turnout till 3.25 pm

Over 43 per cent voting was recorded till 3.25 pm on Sunday in Uttar Pradesh where 14 parliamentary seats are at stake in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, with Ambedkarnagar topping the polling chart.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Ambedkarnagar Lok Sabha seat witnessed the highest 47.87 per cent voter turnout, while Machhlishahr stood at the second position at 47.46 per cent. Phulpur recorded the lowest voter turnout.

Voting percentage in Basti stands at an estimated 46.24 per cent, followed by Sultanpur (45.89 per cent), Azamgarh (45.25 per cent), Lalganj (44.16 per cent), Sant Kabir Nagar (44.08 per cent), Jaunpur (43.84 per cent), Pratapgarh (43.34 per cent), Shrawasti (41.93 per cent), Bhadohi (41.53 per cent), Domariyaganj (39.45 per cent), Allahabad (38.87 per cent), and Phulpur (36.51 per cent).

Former chief minister and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav (Azamgarh) and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi (Sultanpur) are among the prominent leaders whose fate will be packed in the electronic voting machines.

Of the total 14 seats, 13 were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last general elections with Azamgarh being the only exception where SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav emerged as the winner.

Elections are being held in the sixth phase all ten in Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, four in Jharkhand, all seven seats in Delhi, in addition to Uttar Pradesh.

Re-polling is being conducted at booth number 116 in West Bengal's Barrackpore parliamentary constituency and booth number 110 in Arambag Lok Sabha seat, along with one polling station each in Puducherry and Tripura. Several incidents of poll-booth violence have been reported from West Bengal.

Polling began at 7 am across the seven states and will continue till 6 pm.

The seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha election will take place on May 19. The counting of votes will be held on May 23.