Amid heavy security arrangements, an estimated over 40 percent of 1.81 crore voters cast ballots till 2 PM during the fifth round of polling in Uttar Pradesh today.
Polling is on by and large peacefully in 51 Assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts of the state.
"Over 40 percent polling was recorded till noon," poll officials said here.
The exercise was slow in the first two hours but picked up pace gradually.
Prominent contestants in this phase include controversial minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati from the ruling Samajwadi Party, who is facing Amita Singh from the Congress and BJP's Garima Singh in Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi.
Prajapati, against whom an FIR has been registered in an alleged rape case, said the people were with him and there was a strong wave in favour of the SP. "Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will become the CM again," he said.
Amita, wife of Congress leader Sanjay Singh, hoped people would support the best candidate "and I will definitely win".
Garima, the first wife off Sanjay, on the other hand said there was no development in the constituency and people were facing problems.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
Faizabad is another hot seat after BJP's Ram Temple issue once again figured in its manifesto this time.
Ayodhya Assembly seat, which falls in Faizabad district, used to be a traditional stronghold of the BJP since the Ram Temple movement days. But it was snatched by the SP in 2012 and this time the saffron party is trying to wrest the seat back.
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