UP Fourth Phase: 57.2 % turnout

Around 57.2 percent polling was recorded in Uttar Pradesh where the fourth phase of the assembly elections ended peacefully on Sunday evening.

The polling continued till 5 pm in the evening as there were queues in some booths in the last hours.

This phase was crucial for the Congress and the results would show if they had been able to garner the Muslim votes having promised job quota even at the cost of reprimands from the Election Commission at the repeated model code violations by Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid and later Beni Prasad Verma.

The charm of the Nehru-Gandhi clan again was put to test in this phase. Parts of the Lok Sabha constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi- bastions of Congress with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi representing the areas in parliament- is undergoing polls on Sunday as well.

There were 56 seats up for grabs by the 967 contestants in this phase spread over 11 districts with a total of 1.74 crore voters.

There were 32 sitting legislators in the fray in this phase besides three state ministers and several former ministers.

The eleven districts where polling is underway are Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Farrukhabad, CSM Nagar, Kannauj, Banda, Chitrakoot, Fatehpur and Pratapgarh.

Louis Khurshid, wife of Union law minister Salman Khurshid, is a notable candidate in this phase. She fought the polls from Farrukhabad Sadar seat.

Muslim voters were a crucial factor in this round and the run up to the polls witnessed a controversy over the job quota for the minority promised by the Congress.

Uttar Pradesh will go to vote in three more stages on 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.