Lucknow: Voting for the sixth phase of UP polls began at 7 am today morning for 49 seats with near about 11 percent polling was reported till 9 am.
Near about 1.72 crore voters will decide the fate of 635 candidates across seven districts in eastern UP, including 94.60 lakh men and 77.84 lakh women will cast their votes.
Some of the prominent candidates who were in fray include Bharatiya Janata Party’s Swami Prasad Maurya (Padrauna) and former state unit chief Surya Pratap Shahi (Pathardeva), and jailed don Mukhtar Ansari, contesting from Mau on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.
Total numbers of candidates are in Gorakhpur city where 127 candidates in fray for its nine seats, while the minimum number of candidates – seven – are in Mohammadabad Gohna seat in Mau.
Most of the polling stations, particularly those in the rural areas, wore a deserted look till 9 a.m, but some booths in Gorakhpur, Mau and Azamgarh saw long queues.
Gorakhpur, Ballia, Kushinagar and Maharajganj polled 11 per cent in two hours after voting began at 7 a.m., while Mau, Deoria and Azamgarh polled 10 per cent.
Mainly focus will be largely on the Azamgarh which is considered to be Lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s strong hold.
Maurya is contesting from Padrauna, former state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Surya Pratap Shahi is fighting from Pathardeva, and Muktaar Ansari, the don turned politician who is contesting from behind the bars from Mau.
There are also 175 independent candidates in the fray in this phase.
