UP elections 2017 Phase 3: 61.16% voters turn out, stray incidents reported in battle of bigwigs

The third phase of the UP Assembly elections came to a close on Sunday evening, with the Election Commission (EC) saying that polling was mostly peaceful, barring a few stray incidents.

The voter turnout recorded at 5 pm was 61.16 percent and several bigwigs, from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, turned up for polling. The fate of more than 800 candidates across 69 constituencies will be decided in this phase.

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Peaceful polling

The EC said at the end of the day that they had recorded a tentative voter turnout of 61.16 percent, but it could go up to as much as 63 percent. They also added that they had managed to seize Rs 38.40 crore cash and 2.04 lakh litres of alcohol, ensuring free and fair polling.

The likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav's wife, Dimple Yadav, and even Rajnath Singh turned out to exercise their franchise at one of the more than 26,000 polling booths that had been set up for this phase. In each case, they rooted for their own parties, and Mulayam even went so far as to add that his brother Shivpal Singh Yadav – who is currently in a bitter political tussle with Akhilesh Yadav – would win by a big margin at Jaswantnagar.

However, polling was boycotted in booths 111 and 112 in Auraiya because the people were protesting against the lack of development, the EC said. Also, only six votes were cast in Rasulabad, while only one was cast in Bhognipur of the Kanpur Dehat constituency.

Stray incidents

The day, however, was not as uneventful for Shivpal himself, as he was in the middle of an incident that marred the peaceful environment that the voting was conducted in. Stones were thrown at his car from a distance in the Katiapur village of the Jaswantnagar Assembly constituency in the Etawah district.

Shivpal later said the stone-pelting was part of a conspiracy by a BJP candidate – his rival – to intimidate him.