The first phase of civic body elections in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday saw nearly 53% voting, the state’s Election Commission said. Voting was peaceful at all polling booths except one in Badaun, where votes will be cast again as incidents of ballot papers being damaged were reported, according to Amar Ujala.
Elections were held in five municipal corporations of Agra, Kanpur, Ayodhya-Faizabad, Meerut and Gorakhpur, 71 municipal boards and 154 nagar panchayats – spread across 24 districts.
Kanpur saw a 44.9% voter turnout and Gorakhpur, 39.2%. In Agra, 43.1% of the electorate voted. In Bijnor, the figure was 63.4%.
Soon after voting began, the Electronic Voting Machines at three booths in Kanpur faced technical glitches. The machines were fixed and voting resumed soon after, ANI reported. Another EVM at a polling station in Gorakhpur also malfunctioned. No vote was cast at the polling station till 10.10 am, after which the machine was repaired.
Voters in Dhawai Nagar locality of Meerut complained that while pressing the button for the Bahujan Samaj Party, the lights on the Bharatiya Janata Party and “Nota” buttons flashed, the Hindustan Times reported. Protests erupted after the complaints, and polling was stopped until the machine was replaced.
Voters from Agra’s ward number 29 alleged that BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria indulged in “thuggish behaviour”, and tried to influence them at a booth. In Meerut, some voters alleged that an EVM at a polling booth cast votes only for the BJP. However, Additional State Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma said these claims were false.
Chief Minister Adityanath cast his vote at a polling booth in his constituency of Gorakhpur early in the morning.
Two phases of voting remain – on November 26 and November 29. The results will be declared on December 1.
Around 30 million voters are eligible to vote in the local body polls for more than 650 posts. The Adityanath-led government had recently constituted the Ayodhya Nagar Nigam and Mathura-Vrindavan Nagar Nigam municipal corporations.
In 2012, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 10 of the 12 mayoral posts, but bagged only 42 municipal boards chairperson seats and 36 seats in nagar panchayats.
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