Lucknow, May 19 (UNI) An 56.84 per cent of the 2.36 crore voters exercised their franchise in 13 Lok Sabha (LS) seats in Poorwanchal region of Uttar Pradesh in the seventh phase on Sunday which passed off peacefully.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO )Vekenteshwar Lu told mediapersons here that polling was totally peaceful with 56.84 per of electorate exercising the franchise in the seventh phase.
The polling percentage in the last phase was encouraging as it was up by around 2 per cent than polled in 2014.
The polling, which started in a brisk note in the morning and slowed down later due to severe heat wave condition, was by and large peaceful with sporadic incidents of clashes in Chandauli.
The polling percentage in 13 lok Sabha constituencies at 1800 hrs was 62.40 pc in Maharajganj , 57.38 pc Gorakhpur, 56.24 pc in Kushinagar, 56.02 pc in Deoria, 55 pc in Basgaon, 56.90 pc in Ghosi, 54.60 pc in Salempur, 52.50 pc in Ballia, 58.10 pc in Ghazipur, 57.26 pc in Chandauli, 58.05 pc in Varanasi, 60.20 pc in Mirzapur and 54.29 pc in Robertsganj.
Mr Lu said that polling was totaly peaceful manner and till 1700 hrs the official voting percentage was just 53.19 per cen which rose to 56.84 per cent at 1800 hrs. In 2014, the polling percentage in this phase was 54.96 per cent.
While polling in Gorakhpur increased by three per cent in comparison to 2014, but in Varanasi, parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the polling percentage was marginally less by 0.20 per cent.
In three Assembly segments -Robertsganj, Dudhi and Chakia of the Robertsganj Lok Sabha seat the polling ended two hours earlier, at 1600 hrs.
Along with the 13 Lok Sabha seats, bypolls to Agra(north) Assembly seat too was held on Sunday where the polling percentage was 39.
Besides, re-polling is being held in one booth in Mubarakpur assembly segment of Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat where polling was held.
Samajwadi Party led a delegation to Election Commission about harassment of party leaders and workers in Gorakhpur and Chandauli which question the impartiality in the polling.
Mr Lu said like other phases,this time too several EVMs and VVPAT were replaced. He said during mock polling, 177 Ballotting Units (BU), 204 Controlling Unit (CU) and 349 VVPATs were changed while during polling 150 BU, 150 CU and 334 VVPAT were replaced.
With this, the fate of 167 candidates including 13 women in the elections is sealed.
Prominent faces in this phase were Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Varanasi), Union Ministers Manoj Sinha (Ghazipur), Apna Dal (Sonelal) founder Aunpriya Patel (Mirzapur), UP BJP president Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey (Chandauli), Bhojpuri actor and BJP candidate Ravi Kishan (Gorakhpur).
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