Over 22 per cent polling till 11 am in UP

More than 22 per cent voting was recorded till 11 am in 13 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, officials said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was among the early voters in Gorakhpur, said, "People are fighting this election for nation's interest and if someone cannot understand this thing, his IQ is questionable. The entire election revolved around Modiji. With big achievements of his government during the last five years, the BJP will win the election.

Ram Bhuwal Nishad, the SP-BSP alliance candidate also voted at Daunadih Prathmik Vidyalaya booth number 295 in Gorakhpur.

Union minister of state for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla also exercised his franchise in Gorakhpur. He said BJP candidate Ravi Kishan will win with more than 3 lakh votes and the BJP will form government at the Centre.

The turnout in Varanasi was 23.10 per cent, while in Gorakhpur, it was 23.62 per cent. The highest turnout was 26 per cent in Maharajganj, while Robertsganj reported the lowest turnout of 20.20 per cent, the Election Commission said.

The overall polling percentage till 11 am in the state was 22.62.

Polling is underway in Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Bansgaon (SC), Ghosi, Salempur, Ballia, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking re-election from Varanasi.Union minister Manoj Sinha, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey are seeking re-election from Ghazipur and Chandauli, respectively.

The BJP is contesting 11 Lok Sabha seats in this phase, while its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) is contesting from Mirzapur, currently held by Union minister Anupriya Patel, and Robertsganj.

The saffron party has pitted Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan from Gorakhpur against Congress' Madhusudan Tripathi and Rambhual Nishad of the Samajwadi Party.

Gorakhpur MP Pravin Nishad, who had won the seat on a SP ticket in bypolls last year, has joined the BJP. The party has fielded him from Sant Kabir Nagar seat.

Gorakhpur was represented by Yogi Adityanath in the Lok Sabha from 1998 to 2017, before he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The final phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state will also decide the fate of eight SP and five BSP candidates. In all, there are 167 candidates in the fray for 13 seats.

The highest number of 26 candidates in the fray are from Varanasi, while Bansgaon has the least number of four candidates fighting the polls.

The total number of voters in the state, who are eligible to cast their vote in this phase is over 2.32 crore. As many as 25,874 polling booths have been set up in 13,979 polling centres in the final phase, the Election Commission said.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, the BJP had won 71 out of 80 seats in the state, securing 42.63 per cent of votes. BJP ally Apna Dal bagged two.