Lucknow, Jan 7 (IANS) Polling for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council to elect 36 representatives from 35 local authority constituencies passed off Thursday with around 90 percent of the electorate exercising their franchise, an official said.
“While we are still to ascertain the exact polling percentage, we have learnt that it would be somewhere near 90 percent. The exact polling percentage will be clear only late night,” the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha told IANS.

“The polling process across the state remained totally peaceful,” he added.

The polling that started at 8 a.m. at 923 polling centres continued till 4 p.m. Instead of electronic voting machines, ballot papers were used.

As many as 193 candidates are in the fray to fill the 36 seats from 35 local authority constituencies and their fate would be decided by an electorate of over 133,000. A maximum of eight candidates are in the fray for the Allahabad seat while Badaun, Hardoi, Azamgarh, Ballia, Varanasi and Jhansi constituencies have three candidates each.

Among the main political parties, the state’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting all the 36 seats while the main opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) is contesting 32, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 23 and the Congress 21.

The Election Commission had appointed 35 IAS officers belonging to the Uttar Pradesh cadre as its observers to oversee the election. Thirty five special observers have also been appointed for the constituencies at the request of the political parties and candidates.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal said 53 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were deployed to ensure free and fair elections. He said 22 companies of PAC have been kept in reserve.

The votes will be counted on Saturday.

The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) has 100 members. Of these, 36 are elected by the local bodies. Other members are elected by graduates, teachers and legislators of the lower house, while some are nominated.

Presently, in the 100-seat council, the main opposition SP has 35 members while the ruling BSP has 22. Among other mainstream political parties, BJP has 16 members, the Congress three and the Rashtriya Lok Dal five.