Over 50 pct voting till 3 pm in UP's 8 constituencies on Thursday

Over 50 per cent of the votes were cast by 3 pm Thursday in the eight constituencies which went to the polls in Uttar Pradesh in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission figures put the overall voter turnout at 50.39 percent, with three hours still to go for the polling to end.

Polling is underway in four reserved constituencies of Nagina, Bulandshahr, Hathras and Agra, besides four general constituencies of Amroha, Aligarh, Fatehpur Sikri and Mathura. According to the Election Commission, the polling percentage till 3 pm was 51.67 in Nagina, 54.62 in Amroha, 52 in Bulandshahr, 49.19 in Hathras, 49.07 in Agra, 48.80 in Aligarh, 48.10 in Mathura, and 49.70 in Fatehpur Sikri.

There are 1.4 crore registered voters in the eight constituencies. In Gujjupura village, under Nagina parliamentary constituency, residents were upset over the absence of a polling booth in their village and boycotted voting in the initial hours of polling Thursday.

Voters, however, later went on to cast their vote following the intervention by the Bijnor district administration authorities. BJP MLA from Hasanpur in Amroha district, Mahendra Singh Khadagvanshi alleged that burqa-clad women were indulging in fake voting.

The district administration, however, denied the charge. In Bulandshahr, a video of the sitting BJP MP Bhola Singh "seeking blessings" inside a polling booth went viral on social media, following which the district administration

restricted his movements, forbidding him to step out of his home till 4 pm. "His movement was restricted till 4 pm and he was not allowed to move out from his house. He was seen seeking blessings from the people at a polling centre, which is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct. A candidate cannot speak to people inside a booth. They (candidates) can visit and see things but cannot talk." Bulandshahr District Magistrate Abhay Singh told PTI.

When contacted UP Chief Electoral Officer L Venkateshwar Lu, said "We have sought a report from the district magistrate in this regard." The eight Lok Sabha seats for which the polling is underway Thursday had been bagged by the BJP in 2014.

This time it faces a tough fight from the SP-BSP-RLD alliance. In this phase, the BSP has fielded candidates on six of the eight constituencies. The SP and RLD are contesting Hathras and Mathura, respectively, as per the terms of the alliance.

Under their seat-sharing pact, the Bahujan Samaj Party is contesting 38 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the Samajwadi Party 37 and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal three. The alliance has left two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, for the Congress. The Election Commission has set up 16,162 polling booths in 8,751 polling centres for this phase in the state. There are 85 candidates in the fray for the eight seats, with 15 of them, the highest, in Fatehpuri Sikri.