UP polls 2017, 4th phase: 61% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm

Voter turnout expected to cross 63%, says Election Commission.

61% voter turnout till 5 pm in 4th phase of UP polls.

Polling time for the 4th phase of UP polls 2017 ends.

50.37% voter turnout in #UPPolls2017 till 3.00 PM. pic.twitter.com/MOlKMcrAqC

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

Also Read: UP election: Villagers boycott polling in Khaga over developmental issues

Around 27% voter turnout recorded till noon in phase-IV: PTI

Voting percentage till 11 am in fourth phase of #uppolls2017 pic.twitter.com/kiQAIf6L9c

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

More than 23 percent voter turnout recorded till 11 am: Reports

Around 15% turnout till 10 AM in phase-IV: PTI reports

#UPPolls Phase 4: West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi casts his vote at booth no 252 in Allahabad. pic.twitter.com/K1sbbkpc9v

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

#UPPolls: Villagers boycott polling in Fatehpur's Khaga over developmental issues;0 vote at booths 105&106, 9 at booth 107 & 8 at booth 109. pic.twitter.com/iFkqv9THIh

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

Also Read: Samajwadi Party candidate's son shot in Uttar Pradesh

10.23% voting in fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections till 9 am pic.twitter.com/6QBKZ4wjWs

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 23, 2017

10.23% voting recorded till 9 am.

Voter turnout in the Assembly seats till 9 am:

Hamirpur - 8 percent
Chitrakoot - 12 percent
Lalitpur - 9 percent
Kaushambi - 10 percent
Jhansi - 12 percent
Banda - 10.3 percent
Pratapgarh - 10.4 percent

UP BJP Chief Keshav Prasad Maurya casts his vote in Allahabad.

Congress candidate from Raebareli Sadar Aditi Singh exercises her franchise. She is up against BSP's Mohd Shahbaz and BJP's Anita Srivastava.

Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti casts her vote in Hamirpur.

The prominent contestants include sitting Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra from Rampur Khas (Pratapgarh), the daughter of MP Pramod Tiwari, and independent MLA and minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, who is again contesting from his traditional Kunda (Pratapgarh) seat.

Inter district and inter state borders have been sealed. Patrolling by security forces has been intensified in poll-bound areas and most of the polling centres are manned by the central Para Military Forces.

Voting has still not begun in booth no 481 in Jalaun as the EVM machine is not working, reports news agency ANI.

In Mahoba, supporters of SP and BSP clash. Four people, including Samajwadi Party candidate Siddhgopal Sahu's son, were injured.

The Assembly constituency with the maximum number of candidates is Allahabad North, where 26 candidates are trying their luck at the hustings. The seats with least number of candidates are Khaga (Fatehpur), Manjhanpur (Kaushambi) and Kunda (Pratapgarh) with six candidates each.

There are a total of 680 candidates in the fray in the fourth phase, of which 61 are women. 
 

It is for the first time since 1998 that Sonia Gandhi has not campaigned in an election. However, on the eve of voting, she wrote a letter to the electorate seeking their support for the party and votes in favor of the party candidates. 
 

The fourth phase is especially significant for the Congress, as it had managed to wrest only six seats in the 2012 Assembly polls in these constituencies. Besides, the parliamentary constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Raebareli, is also voting in this phase. 
 

In all, 1.84 crore voters will use their franchise in the tight contest between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Of these, around one crore are male voters, 84 lakh women voters and 1,034 voters from the third gender.
 

Voting in 53 Assembly constituencies in the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh elections began at 7 am on Thursday.