30 Percent Votes Polled Till Noon in UP

Lucknow: Around 30 per cent votes were polled till noon on Saturday in 73 Assembly constituencies in the first of the seven-phase UP polls being seen as a litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nearly three-year rule.

The outcome of the polls in which the SP and Congress have come together in the state for the first time are expected to be the bellwether for the next Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP is hoping to return to power in the state after 13 years while Mayawati's BSP, which fared the worst the last time around, hopes to stage a comeback.

The polling has so far been peaceful in the 15 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, some of which are sensitive.

A total of 2.60 crore voters, including over 1.17 crore women and 1,508 belonging to third gender category are eligible to cast their ballot to decide the fate of 839 candidates.

The first phase of polling will decide the electoral fortunes of Pankaj Singh (Noida seat), son of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress Legislature Party leader Pradeep Mathur (Mathura) against whom BJP spokesman Srikant Sharma is in fray, Mriganka Singh (Kairana), daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh and controversial BJP MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana - Sardhan and Thanabhawan respectively.

Former BJP state president Lakshmikant Bajpai (Meerut), RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son-in-law Rahul Singh (SP) from Sikandarabad, and Sandeep Singh, grandson of Rajasthan Govenor Kalyan Singh from Atrauli are among other key figures in this phase.

The districts where polling is on in this phase are Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Etah and Kasganj.

In the 73 constituencies where polling is being held today, SP and BSP had bagged 24 seats each, BJP 11, Rashtriya Lok Dal headed by Ajit Singh nine and Congress five in the 2012 polls.

PTI