Polling underway in 14 LS seats in UP, over 23 % polling till 11 am

Nearly 23 per cent turnout was recorded Monday in the first four hours of polling in 14 Lok Sabha seats of UP where Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi are in the fray.

Among early voters in the state capital included Home Minister Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, DGP OP Singh and Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar.

Election officials here said polling was going on smoothly, barring some complaints of EVM malfunctioning, which were attended to immediately.

Union minister and the BJP's Amethi candidate Smriti Irani alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was "ensuring booth capturing" in the constituency.

Irani and Gandhi are contesting against each other in the seat.

"Alert @ECISVEEP Congress President @Rahul Gandhi ensuring booth capturing," Irani said on Twitter.

She also tagged a video in which an elderly women is seen alleging that her hand was forcibly put on 'panja' (hand) election symbol of the Congress though she wanted to vote for the 'kamal' (lotus), the BJP's symbol.

There is no written complaint on the matter.

In the first four hours, 22.88 per cent polling was witnessed in the state.

Maximum of 28.41 percent voting was witnessed in Dhaurahra, while Lucknow recorded 20.98 per cent.

Raebareli and Amethi witnessed 21.28 per cent and 21.83 per cent turnout respectively, EC officials said.

The BJP had bagged 12 of these seats in 2014 with the Congress winning Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Polling was underway in Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj and Gonda constituencies where a total of 182 candidates are in the fray.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on five seats - Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur and Kaisarganj.

Its ally Samajwadi Party (SP) is fighting for seven seats -Lucknow, Banda, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.

In Amethi and Rae Bareli, the SP-BSP alliance has not put up any candidate, leaving the two constituencies for the Congress.

The Union Home Minister is seeking re-election from Lucknow, while his colleague at the Centre Smriti Irani is again taking on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.

In the Faizabad parliamentary constituency, under which the temple town of Ayodhya falls, sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh is taking on Nirmal Khatri of the Congress. Khatri is a former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

Former Union minister and Congress candidate Jitin Prasad is contesting from Dhaurahra against former Chambal brigand Malkhan Singh.

In Lucknow, the SP has pitted Poonam Sinha, wife of actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, as the joint 'mahagathbandhan' candidate against the Union home minister.