New Delhi: Voting took off for 59 constituencies in nine districts Wednesday for the fourth phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The polling started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
Among the districts going to polls today are Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were mowed down by cars allegedly carrying BJP workers on 3 October last year.
Polling is also underway in Raebareli Sadar, part of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary bastion. Sitting MLA Aditi Singh, who joined the BJP, is taking on Congress’s Manish Chauhan and Samajwadi Party’s RP Yadav.
The constituencies of Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Banda and Fatehpur are also going to polls today.
The prominent candidates in this phase are Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, SP’s national spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria, former SP minister Abhishek Mishra, former Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Nitin Agarwal and Aditi Singh.
As the fourth phase of polling began, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and urged voters “to make their contribution in strengthening the democracy by using their valuable votes”.
The BJP had won 51 of the 59 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections. Samajwadi Party had won in four constituencies and Bahujan Samaj Party had bagged three seats. BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had clinched victory in the remaining seat.
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