Fifth phase of polling begins in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: Polling for the fifth phase of elections to 57 assembly constituencies spread over nine districts in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday morning amidst tight security.

Over 1.59 crore voters will decide the fate of 850 candidates, including state ministers Naresh Agarwal, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya and Rajaram Pandey, Opposition leader Lalji Tandon, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari and BSP legislative party leader Swami Prasad Maurya.

Officials said about 15,692 polling stations and 9,170 polling centres have been set up for the polls. A number of Assembly seats in the Parliamentary constituencies of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Lucknow), Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi (Amethi) are also going to the polls on Saturday.

As many as 65,700 personnel of central paramilitary forces had been deployed to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections.

The districts going to polls included Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Unnao, Banda and Chitrakoot.