Lucknow, Dec 2 (UNI) Counting of votes to decide the fate of 199 candidates contesting for the 11 seats of Uttar Pradesh legislative council from the graduate and teachers seats would taken up from Thursday morning.
An estimated 55.47 per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise in the polling held for the 11 seats on Tuesday.
Election Commission sources here on Wednesday said that all preparation for the smooth conduct of the counting of votes have been made and elaborate security would be at place in and around the counting centres. The counting will commence at 0800 hrs on Thursday and will continue till the results were declared. The voting has been done on ballot papers and there are preferential voting system, hence the counting will take some time. Ruling BJP was contesting the polls for the first time and is set to most of the seats, while the SP and Congress along with good numbers of Independents are trying their luck.
The opposition has already alleged that the BJP with the help of the official machinery have rigged the polls and did not allow the opposition voters to cast their votes.
The polling was peaceful, though in some places, minor dispute arose over faulty voters list and verbal dispute occurred between the supporters of the political parties.
However, voting percentage in the six teachers constituencies were better than the five graduate constituencies.
The highest turnout was witnessed at Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers constituency were the percentage was 73.94 while the lowest was 36.74 per cent in Lucknow division graduate constituency.
According to EC polling percentage in Agra Division Graduates constituency was 41.56 per cent,
Allahabad-Jhansi Division Graduates-41.10 per cent, Lucknow Division Graduates-36.74 per cent, Meerut Division Graduates- 42.86 per cent, Varanasi Division Graduates- 39.33 per cent, Agra Division Teachers- 70.78 per cent, Bareilly-Moradabad Division Teachers- 73.48 per cent, Gorakhpur-Faizabad Division Teachers-73.94 per cent, Lucknow Division Teachers- 58.99 per cent, Meerut Division Teachers- 62.60 per cent and Varanasi Division Teachers- 68.83 per cent.
A total of 12,69,817 voters were eligible to cast their franchise in the five graduate seats at 1808 polling booths while 2,06,335 voters would cast their votes for six teachers constituencies in 813 polling booths.
A total of 199 candidates were in the fray from five graduate and six teachers constituencies spread out in the entire state. There are 114 candidates in the graduate seats and 85 in the teachers constituencies.
The polling held while adhering to the protocol pertaining to COVID-19 including wearing face mask, social distancing and hand washing made compulsory. Every voter would be screened before entering the booth.
The seats where the biennial polls will be held are Lucknow division, Varanasi division, Agra division, Meerut division and Allahabad-Jhansi division of the graduate constituencies and Lucknow division, Varanasi division, Agra division, Meerut division, Bareilly-Moradabad division and Gorakhpur-Faizabad division of the teachers’ constituencies.
These 11 seats fell vacant on May 6 last but due to Covid, the elections to these seats were delayed for 6 months.
There are 22 candidates in the fray from Agra graduate seat, 16 in Allahabad- Jhansi graduate seat, 24 in Lucknow Graduate seat, 30 in Meerut graduate seat and 22 in Varanasi graduate seat.
Similarly, there are 16 candidates in Agra teachers seat, 15 in Bareilly- Moradabad teachers seat, 11 in Lucknow teachers seat, 15 in Meerut teachers seat and 12 in Varanasi teachers seat.
