At least 65 percent voting in western UP's 10 seats

Setting a new record of balloting, the 10 seats of western Uttar Pradesh where polling was held Thursday saw an almost 65 percent turnout or 1.12 crore people voting and the number is likely to go up, officials said.

While Election Commission officials put the interim average voting figures at 64.9 percent, they said the turnoute could be more once the final figures are calculated.

Chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha told reporters at the conclusion of polling that around 1.12 crore out of the total 1.69 crore electorate exercised their franchise.

The highest voting was reported from Saharanpur where 73.40 percent people cast their votes against 61.40 percent in 2009, while the lowest turnout was recorded in Bulandshahr where 57.1 percent voters cast their votes. This, though, was still higher than 46.15 percent in 2009.

Bijnore recorded 66.25 percent over around 54 percent in 2009, while Noida saw 62.6 percent against 48.6 per cent in the previous Lok Sabha polls and Ghazaiabad 60 percent.

voting till 6 pm.

The turnout in Meerut was 63.80 percent against 50.13 percent in 2009, while in Muzaffarnagar, where largescale communal riots took place last year, the turnout was 68.27 percent. In 2009, the voting percentage here was 55.36 percent.

Voting in Shamli was 69.40 percent (62.82 percent in 2009), Aligarh saw 61.60 percent voting over

46.69 percent in 2009 while in Baghpat, the turnout was 67.20 percent against 48.14 percent in the last general elections.

People at four polling stations - one in Saharanpur and three in Aligarh - boycotted the polls and did not cast their votes.

Sinha said that a total of 18,395 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used Thursday across 16,913 polling stations, of which 3,656 were declared sensitive. A total of 180 Indian Administrative Service probationers from the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Uttarakhand also undertook their 'election training' during the polling Thursday.

The 146 candidates in the fray included 14 women.

Prominent faces whose fate was sealed Thursday include former army chief Gen V.K. Singh, who contested as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Ghaziabad against actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar (Congress), and Shazia Ilmi (Aam Aadmi Party).

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh (Rashtriya Lok Dal) was also engaged in a close contest with former Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh (BJP) from Baghpat. Senior BJP leaders and accused in September 2013 riots of Muzaffarnagar - Hukum Singh and Kunwar Bhartendu Singh are also in the fray.