Express News Service
LUCKNOW: The second phase of UP elections covering 55 constituencies across nine districts comprising seven of western UP and two of Rohilkhand witnessed a moderate turnout of 62.65 per cent as per the figures released by State Election Commission till 10 pm on Monday.
However, the voters’ turn out in second phase of the current elections is lower than the corresponding phase of 2017 Assembly polls as it was 65.53 percent. Of the total 55 seats which went to polls on Monday, at least 15 seats had dominant 35-55 percent Muslim population.
In the second phase, of 55 seats up for grabs across Saharanpur, Bijnore, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Badaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur, 38 were bagged by the ruling BJP, 15 by SP and two by Congress. The BSP had failed to open its account in the second phae despite getting over 21 per cent votes.
The district which locked highest percentage of voting in second phase was Amroha with 72.02 per cent (72.34 per cent in 2017) and the district which registered the lowest polling percentage was Sambhal with 57.54 per cent. In 2017 also, Shajahanpur had recorded the lowest (55.25 per cent) voters’ turn outin the second phase.
Besides, Saharanpur logged 69.31 per cent, Moradabad registered 64.75 per cent, Rampur 63.97 per cent, Badaun 57.99 per cent, Shahjahanpur 58.13 per cent, Bareilly 59.85 per centand Bijnore 62.85 per cent.
In phase II, which went off peacefully, fate of total 586 candidates was sealed in the EVMS. Around 2.02 crore voters of which 1.07 crore were men and over 93,79,704 were women who exercised their franchise to elect their favourite MLA.
The prominent names in fray in phase –II included Azam Khan of SP fromRampur, Abduallah Azam of SP from Suar, Suresh Khanna of BJP from Shajahanpur, Baldev Singh Aulakh of BJP from Bialspur, Gulabo Devi of BJP from Chanduasi, Dharam Singh Saini of SP-RLD from Nakur, Mahesh Chandra Gupta of BJP from Badaun Urban, Supraiya Aron of SP from Bareilly Cantt and Naresh Saini of BJP from Behut.
