Voting for third phase UP elections gets underway

Voting for 69 seats in the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections began on Sunday amid tight security.

Heavy security deployment has been made across the 12 districts where polling began. Sensitive polling stations marked by the Election Commission (EC) are being monitored online, an official said.

Poll panel officials said they hope that more and more people will come out to vote this time and that the previous turnout of 59.96 per cent in this region in 2012 will be bettered by the end of the day.

In all, there are 826 candidates in fray whose fate would be decided by 2.41 crore voters.

Prominent districts where polling is underway include Lucknow, Kanpur, Etawah, Kannauj, Etah and Mainpuri.

In this round, all eyes are on people from the Yadav clan, like Shivpal Singh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav's cousin Anurag Yadav. The fate of BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi will also be decided in this round.

--IANS

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