The third phase of elections held in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday went on peacefully with good voting percentage. Both the predominant parties in the clash Bahujan Samajwadi Party and the Congress claimed the turnout was in their favor. But the actual result lies in the ballot box. Voters started assembling in front of the polling booths as early as 7am itself, in serpentine queues. Only about 57 per cent of the 1.77 Cr electorate cast their vote for the 56 seats spread over 10 districts in the third phase of the poll. There was a considerable increase in the youth or new voter’s percentage in the state.

Out of the 1018 candidates fielded by various parties for areas which went for poll yesterday, 77 are women. The ten districts that went for polls in the III Phase were Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, Sultanpur, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra. Polling was held amid tight security.

Interestingly the candidates with a criminal record were too many in the fray. Samajwadi Party (SP) tops the list with 24 of its 48 nominees having several criminal cases pending against them. The Congress party has 14 of 48, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 13 of 47, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 12 of 49. The seven-phase elections began Feb 8 and end March 3. The votes will be counted March 6. (With inputs from internet: AarKay)