A voter turnout of 66% was recorded in Uttar Pradesh as 69 constituencies went to the polls in the second phase of Assembly elections. In the first phase of polls in the state, 63% of the electorate voted. In Uttarakhand, where elections to 69 seats were being held, 68% of the electorate came out to vote till 5 pm.
Voting began at 7 am in both states on Wednesday. In Uttar Pradesh, there were reports of glitches at some electronic voting machines.
Polling in Uttarakhand’s Karnaprayag seat was postponed to March 9 on as Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Kuldeep Singh Kanwasi’s died in a road accident on Sunday.
Around 74.2 lakh voters will elect the next government in Uttarakhand. As many as 628 candidates are in the fray. The ruling Congress party, headed by Chief Minister Harish Rawat, is combating anti-incumbency as well as corruption charges. The Bharatiya Janata Party, on the other hand, hopes to gain from this. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had accused the Congress of turning the “dev bhoomi” into “loot bhoomi”.
In Uttar Pradesh, the 67 constituencies that are voting today are spread across 11 districts. The ruling Samajwadi Party had won 34 of these seats in the last Assembly election. However, the BJP and the BSP have upped the stakes this time, highlighting the state’s poor law-and-order situation.
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