Lucknow, Feb 21: Uttar Pradesh recorded an average voter turnout of more than 63% in the third phase polls of the seven-phase state assembly election across 59 constituencies spread over 16 districts on Sunday, according to data available with the election commission.

 

 

 

The average voter turnout in the first phase (February 10) was 62.43% and in the second round (February 14) of the 2022 UP polls, it was 64.44%. In the 2017 assembly elections, the average poll percentage in these 16 districts was 62.21%.

 

 

 

While the third phase polls, which were held from 7 am to 6 pm, largely remained peaceful, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker was shot at about 400 meters from the polling station in Avadh Nagar locality of Mainpuri City. Police said the accused was arrested later and is believed to be a work belonging to the Samajwadi Party (SP).

 

 

In the 2017 elections, the BJP won 49 of the 59 seats while the SP settled for nine. The Congress got one seat, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) drew a blank. The battle for the Karhal seat in Mainpuri was the focal point of Sunday’s phase as Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav made his assembly poll debut from the constituency.

 

 

Karhal seat recorded 65.10 % turnout which was the highest within the district that comprises four seats—Mainpuri, Bhongaon, and Kisni apart from Karhal. Among the 59 assembly constituencies that went to the polls on Sunday, Mehroni in Lalitpur district recorded the highest voter turnout at 71% followed by 68.20% in Babina (Jhansi) and 67.98% in Jalesar (Etah).

 

 

As per the data available with the election commission, Lalitpur recorded the highest polling percentage 69.61% followed by Etah and Mahoba recorded 65.70% and 64.56% voter turnout respectively. Among the districts, the lowest poll percentage was recorded by Kanpur Nagar at only 56.14%. Farrukhabad and Jalaun happened to be the districts with the second and the third-lowest voter turnout of 59.13% and 59.93% respectively.

 

 

“The voting started at 7 am and continued till 6 pm and as per the information received from districts concerned the average voter turnout by 5 pm was recorded to be 57.58%,” chief electoral officer Ajay Kumar Shukla had said earlier in the day, adding that the final turnout figures were bound to go up as voters who were already in the queue even at 6 pm were allowed to cast their vote. The figures were updated later. According to Shukla, as many as 52,043 eligible voters cast their votes through postal ballots.