Thaindian News

Lucknow, Feb 8 (IANS) Voting proceeded sluggishly in Uttar Pradesh Wednesday with the rain and cold keeping people away from polling booths in the state, where the first phase of the staggered assembly elections are on.

Till 11 a.m., four hours after polling began at 7 a.m., there was only 13.38 percent turnout in the 55 assembly constituencies in the eastern part of the state, said Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha.

Though worried about the weather, he expected polling to pick up during the day. Polling ends at 5 p.m.

“We had carried out a massive campaign to inculcate voting but unfortunately the weather seems to have dampened the effort,” Sinha told IANS.

With overcast skies and a cold wind, voters were clearly reluctant to step out of their homes.

In the first two hours of polling, for instance, just 150 voters stepped out of their homes in the cold and rainy weather at the Puremoti primary school in Barabanki, barely 35 km from here.

According to Sinha, the voter turnout in the first two hours was estimated between five and six percent as against seven to eight percent witnessed in the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

A total of 1.70 crore people are eligible to vote in this round.

Among the important constituencies are Mahasi and Matera in Bahraich district, Ayodhya in Faizabad, Sitapur, Kushinagar, Mubarakpur in Azamgarh and Gazipur.

With 862 candidates in the first-phase fray, Barabanki has the maximum number at 26 and Mahmoodabad the least with eight.

The last round of the seven-phase elections will be held March 3 and the votes counted March 6.

Prominent among those who are in the fray in this first phase are the sons of two Congress MPs, Jagdambika Pal and Beni Prasad Verma, who is also the union steel minister.

This phase is also seen as an acid test for Congress star campaigner Rahul Gandhi who has travelled and campaigned extensively along with Beni Prasad Verma in the area that has a substantial OBC vote of which Verma is regarded as a popular face.