Polling officials seal EVMs and VVPATs on the conclusion of voting for fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections Visuals from polling booth number 305 in 175 Lucknow Cantt constituency.
Assembly Elections 2022 Highlights | An average voter turnout of 37.45 per cent was registered till 1 pm across 59 seats across nine districts, including Lucknow and Lakhimpur Kheri, where polling in underway on February 23 in the fourth round of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections. Pilibhit district recorded highest voter turn out at 41.21 per cent among nine districts voting today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Barabanki, said that the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections were not essential just for the state but for the whole country. Earlier, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi told news agency PTI that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) divert attention from central issues like unemployment and inflation and talk about terrorism. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the BJP will return to power with more seats it had won in 2017. BSP chief Mayawati, who voted in Lucknow, said Muslims were not happy with Samajdwadi Party. The key players in the fray in this phase, among 624 candidates, include Brijesh Pathak and Ashutosh Tandon, both ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government, Rajeshwar Singh, former ED director, Aditi Singh, former Congress MLA and Abhishek Mishra and Manoj Pandey, both former ministers in the Akhilesh Yadav government between 2012 and 2017. This round of voting is considered crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. With eight seats, Lakhimpur Kheri district poses a challenge to the ruling party. Though all the seats are held by the BJP, the recent bail to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, who was arrested in connection with the violence that killed eight people, including four farmers on October 3, will test the ruling party. For the BJP, which won 51 of 59 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls, another challenge would be to retain its seats in the Terai region, where its MP Varun Gandhi has broken ranks to target the party’s government, at Centre and in the state. Gandhi's Parliament constituency of Pilibhit has four seats, all of which are represented by the BJP. The area also has a sizable farmer population that opposed the farm laws. Though the three laws have been called back, the bitterness remained. Though the stakes are not as high for the Congress, retaining two of the five seats in Rae Bareli will be a matter of prestige. Two Congress MLAs Rakesh Singh from Harchandpur and Aditi Singh in Rae Bareli have switched sides to the BJP. Rae Bareli is the parliamentary constituency of Congress’ interim president Sonia Gandhi, who appealed to voters to support the party on February 21. Nine Assembly seats of Lucknow will also go polling on February 23. Eight of these seats have BJP MLAs. The ruling BJP faces a keen challenge from Akhilesh Yadav-led SP in Uttar Pradesh. In the last Assembly polls, the party had secured a win with a three-fourths majority, with firebrand leader Yogi Adityanath being later announced as the chief minister. The SP government could win 47 seats while the Congress party won only seven. The SP had won four of the 59 seats in 2017, while the BSP was victorious on two seats. With today’s Phase-4 of election, polling will be over in as many as 231 of the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. The remaining 172 seats will vote in three phases on February 27, March 3 and March 7, while the results will be declared on March 10, along with the results of Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
Polling officials seal EVMs and VVPATs on the conclusion of voting for fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections Visuals from polling booth number 305 in 175 Lucknow Cantt constituency.
At his political rally in Prayagraj, BJP national president JP Nadda also underlined that Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi as well as Akhilesh Yadav had not seen poverty. Talking about the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre’s Jan Dhan scheme, Nadda alleged that the three leaders would make fun of the scheme as they were born with silver spoon. “Rahul, Akhilesh, Priyanka who were born with a silver spoon used to make fun of Jan Dhan scheme, they have never seen poverty. Now, Modi ji is giving Rs 2,000 every month to the farmers,” he said.
Voter turn out till 5 pm- 57.45%
Kheri (Lakhimpur Kheri) recording highest turnout at 62.42%
Pilbhit 61.33%
Raebareili 58.40%
On the sidelines of his campaigning in Gonda for the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav commented on the arrest of NCP leader Nawab Malik. He said the BJP used central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate to defame those it was scared of. “If BJP is scared of someone, it brings agencies (ED) to defame them (Nawab Malik) and sends them to prison after false trials. We’ve seen this multiple times, BJP once said it’s in danger after a pouch was found in the assembly, which actually was sawdust,” the SP chief added.
Around Rs 800 crores has been invested by GoI to encourage sports among youth in Northeast. We've decided to open Khelo India centers in all 16 districts of Manipur. 10 acres of land has been allotted to construct an Olympic park here, said Union HM Amit Shah in Churachandpur, Manipur.
Aam Aadmi Party writes to Chief Electoral officer Punjab to take all possible steps "to safeguard complete safety and security of the EVMs" across the state of Punjab.
Over 9,500 youth have given up arms and returned to the mainstream. We want to bring all youth in the Northeast back to the mainstream. We will have deliberations with all rebel groups and bring peace in the state: Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Churachandpur, Manipur
In his speech at Kaushambi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mentioned “mausami” (seasonal) political leaders. He said these leaders disappeared during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and reappeared once the infection was brought under control through vaccinations. “You got to seemausami(seasonal) leaders in Covid, who disappeared during peak and reappeared when it was controlled. They instigated people against the vaccine but got themselves vaccinated. People of UP are well aware of seasonal leaders,” he said.
Your (public's) finger has a lot of power, understand it...no other Muslim countries had Triple Talaq, but our secular India had it. If Muslim sisters have attained freedom in India, it's because of PM Modi & your vote, says BJP president JP Naddain Prayagraj.
Our PM is on the mission to open medical colleges in every district in India... 71 years ago, our govt promised in Parliament to remove Article 370 whenever we come to power. I want to ask people here, did we stand on our words or not?, Defence Min Rajnath Singh said in Kushinagar, UP.
Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday said the Samajwadi Party-led alliance will score a double-century of seats by the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh polls and asked people to ensure a historic win for the coalition. He also took a dig at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his reported promise of providing laptops to those who take "admission in Inter after passing class 12". Inter is the short form of Intermediate and refers to classes 11 and 12. "There is a leader in the BJP who... made a statement on distributing laptops and whoever heard it has gone 'lotpot' (split their sides laughing).""He said those who take admission in Inter after Class 12 will be given laptops. Good that he did not say those doing class 10 after Inter will get a laptop, else people would be perturbed," Yadav said at an election meeting here. Making light of the BJP targeting the Samajwadi party with new sobriquets, he said, "They are going A for this, B for that ... and reading ABCD these days." "I want to make them learn Hindi... 'kaka' stands for 'kala kanoon' (black agri laws) which have gone and so will 'Baba' (Yogi Adityanath)." Elated over the sizeable crowd in the meeting, the Samajwadi Party chief said many BJP leaders will become invisible after seeing this "'jansailab' (sea of people)". "The polling in the fourth phase will complete a double century for us. It is now the responsibility of the people to ensure a historic win for the Samajwadi Party-led alliance," Yadav said.
Only 15 (nine percent) out of the 173 candidates contesting the Manipur assembly election in the first phase are women, shows a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).The 2022Manipur assembly electionis scheduled to take place in two phases on February 28 and March 5. The first will cover 38 constituencies, while the second phase will include 22.For the first phase, theCongresshas fielded 35 candidates, out of which four are women. TheBJPhas fielded 36 men and only two women.The National People’s Party (NPP) has 24 male candidates and three women.
Uttar Pradesh has recorded 49.89 per cent voter turnout till 3 pm in the ongoing fourth phase of the assembly elections today. Till 1 pm, the turnout was 37.45% and it is expected to pick up by the voting ends at 6 pm.
