UP Phase 7 Voting: Over 54% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm

Varanasi recorded the lowest voter turnout with 43.76 per cent till 3 pm. The voting commenced at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.

The second-highest voter turnout was recorded in Sonbhadra with 49.84 per cent followed by Bhadohi with 47.49 per cent.
Jaunpur recorded a turnout of 47.14 per cent, Mau (46.88 per cent), Ghazipur (46.28 per cent), Azamgarh (45.28 per cent), Mirzapur (44.64 per cent).

Chandauli recorded the highest voter turnout and became the only district to breach the 50 per cent turnout mark till 3 pm with 50.79 per cent.

Congress leader Ajay Rai on Monday charged that the low voter turnout in the last leg of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections was due to the lack of proper arrangements by the local administration. He also said that Congress will gain a majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

The fate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party president Om Prakash Rajbhar and several state ministers will be decided in this round, in which 2.06 crore people are eligible to vote.

UP records 35.51 per cent voting till 1 pm

Amid the polling for the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on Monday, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel on security duty assisted the differently-abled and elderly voters to cast their votes.

The personnel could be seen helping the elderly at different polling booths in Varanasi, Jaunpur, Sonbhadra, Gazipur and Azamgarh.

Exuding confidence in poll victory, Uttar Pradesh Minister Neelkanth Tiwari on Monday said that the people of Kashi share a special bond with Prime Minister Narendra Modi under whose leadership several developmental works have taken place in the city, including the redevelopment of the Vishwanath Dham (temple complex).

Polling for the last phase of the Assembly elections is underway in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

"BJP & BSP will not win a single seat in Ghazipur, Mau, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar & Ballia. We're winning on 5 of 8 seats in Varanasi, 3 of 4 seats in Chandauli, 7 of 9 seats in Jaunpur. We'll win 45-47 seats in Purvanchal region," says OP Rajbhar, President, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party

UP records 21.55 per cent voting till 11 am 

UP records 8.58 per cent voting till 9 am 

"I appeal to all voters to exercise their franchise in the last phase of Assembly elections today. There is enthusiasm among the voters. Your one vote will help ensure good governance in the state," says Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath

Polling on 54 seats across 9 districts begins

• Over 60,000 police personnel and 845 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed during the seventh and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls 
• A total of 701 localities have been marked as vulnerable in the seventh phase, while 3,359 polling places have been considered as critical
• 78 Pink Booths (women booths) have been arranged to motivate women to vote, and 12 women inspectors or sub-inspectors and 216 women constables or head constables have been deployed
• All 12,205 polling stations will be covered by the CAPF. Uttar Pradesh has received 845 companies of CAPF
• According to officials, a CAPF company usually has an operational strength of around 70-80 personnel. Out of these, 778 companies have been engaged for booth duty and six companies have been engaged for EVM security duty
• The others have been assigned law and order duties, and postings on international and inter-state barriers
• Duties of 6,662 inspectors or sub-inspectors and 53,424 head constables or constables of the Uttar Pradesh Police have been fixed, along with 19 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary

Voting will be held at 12,205 polling stations and 23,535 polling booths in 177 police station areas

The key constituencies in this phase include Azamgarh, Mau, Zahoorabad, Mohammadabad, Varanasi North, Varanasi South, Varanasi Cantt and Gyanpur

Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra are the districts where polling will be held today

The polling will commence at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm

Varanasi is the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he concluded his two-day visit recently holding public meetings, and also held an interaction with the people belonging to various backgrounds in the city.

Interestingly, the BJP, in its election campaign, highlighted the law and order situation in the state and underlined the need for don-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari to remain imprisoned.

• Anil Rajbhar is up against Arvind Rajbhar of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party from the Shivpur Assembly constituency
• Ravindra Jaiswal is contesting from Varanasi North
• Neelkanth Tiwari is up against Samajwadi Party's Kishan Dixit, a priest of Mrityunjay Mahadev, from the Varanasi South seat
• Rama Shankar Singh Patel is contesting from Madihan seat
• BJP's Saurabh Srivastava is up against Samajwadi Party's Pooja Yadav from the Varanasi Cantonment seat
• Mukhtar Ansari's son Abbas Ansari is contesting from Mau seat on a Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) ticket against BJP's Ashok Singh and BSP's Bheem Rajbhar
• Dara Singh Chauhan, a former minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, who quit the BJP weeks ahead of the commencement of the UP polls and joined the Samajwadi Party, has been fielded from the Ghosi seat of Mau district
• The BJP has kept its faith in MLA and wife of late BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, Alka Rai to bag the party the Mohammadabad seat of Ghazipur district
• Krishna Pratap Singh who is a former BJP MP is confronting Lucky Yadav of the Samajwadi Party from on the Malhni seat of Jaunpur
• The Samajwadi Party has fielded sitting MLA Shailendra Yadav Lalai in Shahganj in the Jaunpur district

In the last phase of UP Assembly elections as many as 2.06 crore eligible voters will seal the fate of 613 candidates