20.39 % polling till 11 am in UP 3rd Phase

Balloting is underway for the third phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh with 1018 candidates in the fray for 56 seats across ten districts.

While in this phase the prestige of the Gandhi-Nehru clan is up for trial with assembly seats under Amethi parliamentary constituency besides those in Rai Bareli among the places witnessing the polls, the turnout was about 20.39 percent in the first four hours till 11 am.

In this phase the total number of voters is 1.75 crore.

This phase will decide the fate of s29 sitting MLAs. Besides the prestige and star power of Sonia-Rahul-Priyanka Gandhi, this phase will also see a strong contest between the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of chief minister Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) of Mulayam Singh Yadav.

BSP in the last polls had won 31 of the 56 seats that are witnessing polling Wednesday.

The ten districts going to polls are CSM Nagar, Sultanpur, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra.

Some of the areas going to polls, like Sonbhadra, are Maoist affected as well.

According to poll monitor group Uttar Pradesh Election Watch (UPEW), this phase of election in UP has about 38 percent candidates with criminal cases against them.

Uttar Pradesh will go to vote in four more stages on Feb 19, Feb 23, Feb 28 and Mar 3.

Counting of votes is on March 6 along with all four other states that are going to elections this year.