Assembly Election 2022 Updates: Over 60% voter turnout in UP, 75.2% in Goa, 59.3% in U'khand till 5 pm

People of two villages -- Narau and Milaal Nangla-- in Shekhupur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district on Monday said that they have boycotted the voting for the second phase of the state Assembly election over contaminated water supply. Ujhani is the municipal board in Badaun district here.

Goa recorded 75.29 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm as the single-phase polling for all the 40 assembly constituencies in the state is underway on Monday.
The polling in the coastal state began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm today. According to Election Commission, Sanquelim from where Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is contesting Goa Assembly polls continues to witness the highest percentage of voters' turnout of 88.07 per cent followed by Sanguem with 84.61 per cent voter turnout.

Goa -- 44.63%

Uttar Pradesh -- 39.07%

Uttarakhand -- 35.21%

Samajwadi Party leader Arvind Kumar Singh writes to the Election Commission complaining about EVM glitch at multiple locations in the state and requesting for an intervention.

18.97 per cent voter turnout till 11 am

Average voter turnout of 23.03 per cent recorded till 11 am

Goa reports 26.63 per cent voter turnout till 11 am

North Goa

South Goa 

"People should follow the law, there shouldn't be an atmosphere of fear like created by BJP now. Development done by BJP can be seen only on social media, not on the ground. The people of UP will show BJP their place on 10th March," says Haji R Ahmed, Samajwadi Party candidate

"Polling process peaceful with 11.04% voter turnout so far. We want more & more people to vote this time, expecting record-breaking voting. 5 Control Units, 11 VVPATs replaced during mock polls, this is a normal procedure," says Kunal, Chief Electoral Officer, Goa

5.15 per cent voter turnout till 9 am

Average voter turnout of 9.45 per cent recorded till 9 am

Goa reports 11.04 per cent voter turnout till 9 am

North Goa

South Goa 

"I'd like to appeal to everyone to use their voting rights; voting turnout should be 100%. The elections are being held in a proper, unbiased manner," says Governor of Uttarakhand, Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd), after casting his vote

Goa - 11.04%

Uttar Pradesh - 9.45%

Uttarakhand - 5.15%

"I'm in Cotombi Village and have cast my vote. I appeal to public to come out in huge numbers to vote. BJP govt's work is in front of everyone. Utpal Parrikar (independent) & Michael Lobo (Congress) won't win, as BJP is coming with a majority," says Goa CM Pramod Sawant

"All barriers on interstate borders, & booths have been 100% covered by Central Armed Police Forces. Civil police are available at all polling centers. I assure that no incident against law & order will be done," says Saharanpur DIG Preetinder Singh

"Law & order is very peaceful. Forces are deployed everywhere as per plan. All polling parties had reached safely last night itself. Weather forecast for today is fine, so I hope it'll be peaceful," says Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer Soujanya

"All our schemes have provided a shield for the people of Uttarakhand; the public knows very well who can work for the development of the state. I'm sure that the Uttarakhand public will bring BJP on 60+ seats," says CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, in Khatima

"People voting not for constituency but for Goa. When we talk about Goa, we talk about boys and girls who are unemployed, about mining being closed for last 10 yrs, about problems in the tourism industry. People are going to vote for future," says Congress candidate from Calangute, Michael Lobo

• Polling to the 70 Assembly seats spread over 13 districts of Uttarakhand began on Monday
• This is the fifth Assembly poll being held in the hill state since its creation in 2000
• A public holiday has been declared by the administration for the single-day polling in the state
• The ruling BJP is seeking a consecutive second term in office in the state while the Congress is trying to make a comeback after being routed by the BJP in the 2017 Assembly polls
• The Aam Aadmi Party has also thrown its hat in the ring this time. It has declared Col Ajay Kothiyal as its chief ministerial face
• A total of 81,72173 voters in the state will decide the fate of 632 candidates, including 152 independents
• As many as 36095 police, central paramilitary and PAC personnel have been deployed on poll duty across the state
• There are 11,697 polling booths spread over 8.624 locations
• For the first time, 101 all-women 'Sakhi' polling booths run by women have been set up in the state to encourage their participation in the polling process
• Similarly, six polling booths to be manned by differently-abled have also been set up
• Important BJP faces whose fate is to be decided in these polls are Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Subodh Uniyal, Arvind Pandey, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya besides state party president Madan Kaushik
• Prominent faces from the Congress in the fray are former chief minister Harish Rawat, former minister Yashpal Arya, state party president Ganesh Godiyal and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Pritam Singh

"We're present on booth nos. 141, 142, 143, 144. All teams deployed, EVMs are up & running. Arrangements have been done, as per ECI's guidelines, agents of different political parties have also verified," says Sector Magistrate in Dehradun, Jagdamba Prasad

"I believe Amroha will have an 80-85% voting turnout for Uttar Pradesh Elections 2022. PM Modi and Yogi Ji work for the public all day. He (UP CM Yogi Adityanath) didn't even attend his father's funeral but worked for the UP public," says BJP candidate in Amroha, Ram Singh Saini

"People in Goa are cooperative. There are no major political clashes. The elections will be free & fair. The ECI & all political parties deserve appreciation. This year I expect more people will come to the polling booths," says Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai

"PM Modi called me in the morning today to give his best wishes. I'm fully confident that BJP will win 22+ seats. The infrastructure development by BJP in 10 yrs & PM Modi's self-reliant vision will definitely benefit us with a 100% majority," says Goa CM Pramod Sawant

Polling begins on all seats in Uttarakhand 

• Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan from Rampur
• BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna from Shahjahanpur
• BJP leader and Jal Shakti state minister Baldev Singh Aulakh from Bilaspur constituency

Who has fielded whom 

• Against Dharam Singh Saini (a Yogi Adityanath government minister who switched to the SP before the polls) in Nakud Assembly seat --- The BJP has fielded Mukesh Chaudhary, BSP has fielded Sahil Khan
• Congress has fielded Randhir Singh Chauhan 

Against Azam Khan in Rampur -- BJP has fielded Akash Saxena, BSP has fielded Sadaqat Hussain and Congress has fielded Kazim Ali Khan 

While Azam Khan is contesting these polls from his stronghold Rampur Assembly seat, son Abdullah Azam has been fielded from the Swar seat of Rampur. He has been pitted against Haider Ali Khan, the heir of another political family, the Nawabs of Rampur, who is trying his luck on the ticket of Apna Dal (Sonelal), a BJP ally.

Aonla Assembly seat

• BJP's sitting MLA Dharampal Singh
• MLA Radha Krishna Sharma is in the fray on Samajwadi Party ticket this time from Aonla
• BSP has given the ticket to Laxman Prasad 
• Congress has given the ticket to Omveer Yadav

Badaun Assembly seat

• Minister of State for Urban Development Mahesh Chandra Gupta 
• Samajwadi Party has fielded Vimlesh Kumari 
• BSP has fielded Rannvijay Singh 
• Congress has fielded Mithilesh Kumari

Tilhar seat of Shahjahanpur

• Samajwadi Party has fielded rebel BJP MLA Roshan Lal Verma
• BJP has fielded Salona Kushwaha 
• BSP has fielded Nawab Faizan Ali Khan 
• Congress has given the ticket to Rajneesh Gupta

Amroha seat

• Mehboob Ali, who was a minister in the Samajwadi Party government, is trying his luck again from the seat 
• BJP has fielded Ram Singh
• BSP has fielded Mohammad Navaid Ayaz 
• Congress has fielded Salim Khan

Behat seat of Saharanpur

• MLA Naresh Saini, one of the seven Congress winners in 2017, is now a BJP candidate from Behat seat 
• Samajwadi Party has fielded Omar Ali 
• BSP and fielded Rais Malik 
• Congress has fielded Poonam Kamboj

• Voting for 55 Assembly seats spread across nine Uttar Pradesh districts started on Monday morning. This is the second phase of the Assembly elections in the state
• As many as 586 candidates are in the fray in this phase with the seats spread across Saharanpur, Bijnor, Moradabad, Sambhal, Rampur, Amroha, Budaun, Bareilly and Shahjahanpur
• The areas going to polls in this phase have a sizeable Muslim population influenced by religious leaders of the Barelvi and Deobandsects. These areas are considered strongholds of the Samajwadi Party.
• Prominent faces in the fray in this phase include Dharam Singh Saini, a Yogi Adityanath government minister who had switched to the SP before the polls. Saini is trying his luck from the Nakur Assembly segment
• Senior SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan has been fielded from his stronghold Rampur while UP's Finance Minister Suresh Khanna from Shahjahanpur
• Khan's son Abdullah Azam has been fielded from the Swar seat. He has been pitted against Haider Ali Khan, the heir of the Nawabs of Rampur, who is trying his luck on the ticket of the Apna Dal (Sonelal), a BJP ally. Haider Ali Khan is the grandson of former MP Noor Bano
• UP Minister of State for Jal Shakti Baldev Singh Aulakh is contesting from Bilaspur, Minister of State for Urban Development Mahesh Chandra Gupta from Badaun and Minister of State for Secondary Education Gulab Devi from Chandausi. The former mayor of Bareilly, Supriya Aron, is contesting from Bareilly Cantonment on SP ticket
• With the elections being held amid the COVID scare, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Brahmdev Ram Tripathi said all necessary arrangements have been made to ensure free, fair, transparent and COVID-safe polling

• Polling began Monday morning at 7 am in Goa, where 301 candidates are in the fray for the 40 Assembly seats
• Voting will conclude at 6 pm in the single-phase elections in the coastal state
• Over 11 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes -- including 9,590 persons with disabilities, 2,997 aged over 80 years, 41 sex workers and nine transgenders
• Goa is witnessing a multi-cornered contest, with AAP, TMC and other smaller parties vying to make a mark on the state's electoral scene
• To check the spread of COVID-19, voters have been provided hand gloves at the polling stations
• Over 100 'all-women' polling booths have been set up in the state for the convenience of female voters
• The prominent candidates include CM Pramod Sawant (BJP), Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat (Congress), former CMs Churchill Alemao (TMC), Ravi Naik (BJP), Laxmikant Parsekar (independent), former deputy CMs Vijai Sardesai (GFP) and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP), late CM Manohar Parrikar's son Utpal Parrikar and AAP's CM face Amit Paleker
• The average number of eligible voters per booth in the state is 672, which is the lowest in the country
• The Vasco Assembly constituency has the highest number of 35,139 eligible voters, while the Mormugao seat has the lowest number of voters at 19,958
• The Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) are fighting the election in alliance, while the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has tied-up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to contest the polls
• The Shiv Sena and the NCP had also announced their pre-poll alliance, while AAP is contesting without a tie-up with any other political party
• The Revolutionary Goans, Goencho Swabhimaan Party, Jai Mahabharat Party and Sambhaji Brigade are also in the poll fray, besides 68 independent candidates
• The Congress has fielded 37 candidates, while ally GFP has fielded three

"CPMF is deployed at all 1138 polling booths of the district. We've made a call centre in addition to the police control room. We've directed police officials to surveillance through drones in the densely populated areas," says Babloo Kumar, SSP Moradabad

Voting at polling station number 407 in Damkhoda village of Bareilly Assembly constituency is yet to begin due to a glitch in the EVM

• The second phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls will have the deployment of 794 companies of the Central police forces
• As many as eight seats have been put under the sensitive category that include Nagina, Dhampur, Bijnor, Asmoli, Sambhal, Deoband, Rampur Maniharan, and Gangoh
• In the second phase, 4,917 polling centers have been kept in the sensitive category along with a total of 436 majras/localities
• Out of the 794 companies of the forces, the largest chunk of 733 companies will be deployed for the security of the polling booth
• As many as 50 companies will be deployed for the law and order duty while three companies will be deployed for the EVM security
• For security purposes, 6,860 inspectors and sub-inspectors of the Uttar Pradesh police have also been deployed along with 54,670 constables, 43,397 Homeguards, 930 PRD Jawans, 18 company PAC, and 7,746 Village chowkidars will be deployed for second phase security duty

Polling in Uttarakhand is set to begin at 8 am 

Polling has begun on all seats in Goa and on 55 seats in Uttar Pradesh

Uttarakhand is all set for assembly elections with the authorities taking special care of security measures by installing CCTV in booths and deploying companies of Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF) and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC).

District magistrate Vijay Shankar Pandey said all election teams had been dispatched to their respective constituencies and adequate arrangements had also been made for security. 

"We got 23 companies of CPMF and 5 companies of PAC, which have been deployed in different assembly constituencies", said Pandey.

"CCTVs have also been installed at many polling stations to ensure that the assembly elections can be monitored accurately," the district magistrate said. 

Arrangements were also done for a webcast, he said "under which live pictures of the polling centre will be beamed directly to their control room and. We can see from right here what is going on at the booth."

Deprived of revenue village status for the last 40 years, locals in Uttarakhand's Bindukhatta village, with a population of around 70,000 to 80,000 are still dispossessed of legal ownership of their land and houses.

Despite having a population of over 70,000, Bindukhatta village under the Lalkuan assembly constituency has only around 35,000 valid voters. This is because, as per government law, this village is situated on forest land and as a result not considered a revenue village.

A village given the status of revenue village falls under the revenue department instead of the forest department. Such villages have definite surveyed boundaries and its residents enjoy individual land ownership rights.

Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, which will go to Assembly polls in the second phase of elections on February 14, has more than 800 small scale industries and four large scale industries.

However, the small-scale industrialists here in Bareilly majorly demand "no inspector raj" and they should be allowed to work freely. On the other hand, although locals demand more large-scale industries experts say there is a lack of availability of plots for the same.

Added to that, locals in a conversation with ANI, said that for the past 28 years, no large-scale industries have been set up in Bareilly. Moreover, large-scale industries involved in producing synthetic and chemical materials stopped their production here in the Bareilly unit in 1995. Here, the Turpentine unit was also shut down in 2004, and the Vimco unit was shut down in 2015.

On the last day of the election campaign on Friday, Haridwar BJP candidate Sanjay Gupta was seen pleading and begging for votes in front of the public saying 'tear my clothes, put a shoe garland on me but vote for me'.

During the campaign, Sanjay Gupta became so emotional that he started crying in front of people. He said, "Do not let anyone else reap the seeds I sowed. If you want to tear my clothes, put a shoe garland on my neck, go ahead. But do vote for me. Otherwise, God will not forgive you."

The fate of 301 candidates will be sealed in EVMs today as voters in Goa will exercise their electoral rights to elect state Assembly representatives in 40 constituencies for the formation of the next state government.

The incumbent BJP is being challenged by the Congress, Trinamool Congress, and AAP in a multi-cornered electoral contest in Goa.

Altogether 55 assembly constituencies will go to the polls in the second phase covering nine districts of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Sambhal, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Budaun and Shahjahanpur.

In the absence of the former state Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, BJP is facing an uphill task in Goa to retain power as Congress tries to regain lost ground and the new entrants of the AAP and Trinamool Congress making the polls a multi-corner contest. Parrikar was credited to have been the architect of the rise of the BJP in Goa.

Notably, this is the first electoral fray for the BJP without Parrikar. However, Utpal Parrikar, his son, is seeking to carry the legacy of his father in the Panaji Assembly constituency as an Independent candidate. After the BJP refused to give him the ticket.

Manohar Parrikar represented the Panaji Assembly seat. He had resigned from the BJP after Utpal Parrikar was denied a ticket from the Panaji Assembly constituency.

As Uttarakhand goes to the polls today, the BJP and its Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami are trying to break past electoral trends: the hill state has given mandates alternately to the Congress and the BJP.

On the other hand, Congress is banking on its veteran and former CM Harish Rawat, anti-incumbency, COVID-19 pandemic management, and a slew of promises to make a comeback in the hilly state.

A new entrant in state politics, the Aam Aadmi Party led by retired Colonel Ajay Kothiyal is trying to set up a new base in the state.

Other than the BJP and Congress, and AAP, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party are also testing their electoral strengths in the state.