Lok Sabha polls: Kheri tops at 64.73%, 58% polling in phase IV, hardly any dip vis-à-vis 2019

According to the CEO, the voting percentage recorded in the following constituencies were Kannauj: 61%, Kheri: 64.73%, Sitapur: 61.91%, Kanpur: 53.06%, Unnao: 55.44%, Dhaurahra: 64.45%, Farrukhabad: 58.97%, Akbarpur: 57.58%, Shahjahanpur (Reserved): 53.24%, Misrikh (Reserved): 55.79%, Hardoi (Reserved): 57.57%, Bahraich (Reserved): 57.45% and Etawah (Reserved): 56.38 %.

Significant seats that went to the polls on Monday included Kannauj, where SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is in a direct fight with the BJP’s sitting MP Subrat Pathak while Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni is in the fray for the third consecutive time from Kheri and he is in taking on the SP’s Utkarsh Verma.

Other seats that will be keenly watched in this phase are Unnao, Akbarpur and Kanpur where the BJP’s Sakshi Maharaj and Devendra Singh Bhole are fighting for victory for a third consecutive term, respectively, while BJP’s Ramesh Awasthi, a former journalist, is contesting an election for the first time.

Meanwhile, bypoll was held at Dadraul Assembly constituency too on Monday and the voting percentage recorded was 53.1%.
Meanwhile, in Kannauj, Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of “rigging the polls.”

Akhlesh claimed that there were complaints of voting being “disrupted” in polling booths. Despite the “dishonesty” in Kannauj, the elections are going well and people are coming out to cast their votes, he claimed.

“As soon as I arrived, the goons ran away from the booths,” claimed the SP chief, who reached Chhibramau in Kannauj district.

The SP chief also met police personnel with whom BJP workers allegedly misbehaved and enquired about their well-being.

In a post on X, the state unit of the BJP alleged that in the Bidhuna Assembly segment of Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, SP supporters were not allowing those wanting to vote for the BJP to cast their votes and were indulging in “booth capturing”.

There were also reports of “poll boycott” from some villages, including Aurangabad, in Shahjahanpur district over alleged delay in development of roads. Village chief Virendra Verma told reporters that locals were angry due to the absence of a road and that is why they have boycotted the polls.

—With PTI Inputs