UP polls 2017, 4th phase: 61% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm

Pic courtsey: PTI

Polling began on Thursday morning in 53 constituencies spread over 12 districts that figure in the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. The districts include the backward Bundelkhand region and the Nehru-Gandhi pocket borough of Raebareli.

Other districts where polling is going on amid tight security are Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, and Fatehpur.

23 February 2017

18:52 IST

Voter turnout expected to cross 63%, says Election Commission.

18:48 IST

61% voter turnout till 5 pm in 4th phase of UP polls.

17:09 IST

Polling time for the 4th phase of UP polls 2017 ends.

15:50 IST

50.37% voter turnout in #UPPolls2017 till 3.00 PM. pic.twitter.com/MOlKMcrAqC

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

12:13 IST

12:11 IST

Around 27% voter turnout recorded till noon in phase-IV: PTI

11:57 IST

Voting percentage till 11 am in fourth phase of #uppolls2017 pic.twitter.com/kiQAIf6L9c

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

11:54 IST

More than 23 percent voter turnout recorded till 11 am: Reports

11:10 IST

Around 15% turnout till 10 AM in phase-IV: PTI reports

11:07 IST

#UPPolls Phase 4: West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi casts his vote at booth no 252 in Allahabad. pic.twitter.com/K1sbbkpc9v

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

11:05 IST

#UPPolls: Villagers boycott polling in Fatehpur's Khaga over developmental issues;0 vote at booths 105&106, 9 at booth 107 & 8 at booth 109. pic.twitter.com/iFkqv9THIh

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

10:22 IST

10:10 IST

10.23% voting in fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections till 9 am pic.twitter.com/6QBKZ4wjWs

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

09:55 IST

10.23% voting recorded till 9 am.

09:40 IST

Voter turnout in the Assembly seats till 9 am:

Hamirpur - 8 percent
Chitrakoot - 12 percent
Lalitpur - 9 percent
Kaushambi - 10 percent
Jhansi - 12 percent
Banda - 10.3 percent
Pratapgarh - 10.4 percent

09:15 IST

UP BJP Chief Keshav Prasad Maurya casts his vote in Allahabad.

09:14 IST

Congress candidate from Raebareli Sadar Aditi Singh exercises her franchise. She is up against BSP's Mohd Shahbaz and BJP's Anita Srivastava.

08:58 IST

Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti casts her vote in Hamirpur.

08:43 IST

The prominent contestants include sitting Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra from Rampur Khas (Pratapgarh), the daughter of MP Pramod Tiwari, and independent MLA and minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who is again contesting from his traditional Kunda (Pratapgarh) seat.

08:39 IST

Inter district and inter state borders have been sealed. Patrolling by security forces has been intensified in poll-bound areas and most of the polling centres are manned by the central Para Military Forces.

08:01 IST

Voting has still not begun in booth no 481 in Jalaun as the EVM machine is not working, reports news agency ANI.

07:33 IST

In Mahoba, supporters of SP and BSP clash. Four people, including Samajwadi Party candidate Siddhgopal Sahu's son, were injured.

07:09 IST

The Assembly constituency with the maximum number of candidates is Allahabad North, where 26 candidates are trying their luck at the hustings. The seats with least number of candidates are Khaga (Fatehpur), Manjhanpur (Kaushambi) and Kunda (Pratapgarh) with six candidates each.

07:07 IST

There are a total of 680 candidates in the fray in the fourth phase, of which 61 are women. 

07:06 IST

It is for the first time since 1998 that Sonia Gandhi has not campaigned in an election. However, on the eve of voting, she wrote a letter to the electorate seeking their support for the party and votes in favor of the party candidates. 

07:05 IST

The fourth phase is especially significant for the Congress, as it had managed to wrest only six seats in the 2012 Assembly polls in these constituencies. Besides, the parliamentary constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Raebareli, is also voting in this phase. 

07:02 IST

In all, 1.84 crore voters will use their franchise in the tight contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Of these, around one crore are male voters, 84 lakh women voters and 1,034 voters from the third gender.

07:01 IST

Voting in 53 Assembly constituencies in the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh elections began at 7 am on Thursday.