Lok Sabha elections, Phase 4: 43.91 per cent voting recorded till 3 pm in Uttar Pradesh

An estimated 43.91 voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh on Monday as polling for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in the state was underway.

Seats where the polling is underway in the state are Shahjahanpur (SC), Kheri, Hardoi (SC), Misrikh (SC), Unnao, Farrukhabad, Etawah (SC), Kannauj, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi and Hamirpur.

In Kanpur, BJP workers clashed with police and allegedly threatened Circle Officer, Gwaltoli, Janardan Dubey and his subordinates posted on election duty.

Dubey said some BJP agents forcibly tried to enter a polling booth in Parmat primary school and when they were stopped they threatened him of dire consequences.

A case has been registered against BJP leader Suresh Awasthi and six others in this connection, District Magistrate, Kanpur, Vijay Vishwas Pant said.

In Kannauj, a representative of Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav, Guddu Saxena, has complained to the observers that the district administration allegedly was not allowing SP leaders and workers to move out of their houses.

He complained that security personnel in large numbers were deployed outside the houses of SP leaders before polling began and also alleged that EVMs in the SP strongholds were malfunctioning.

Complaints of EVM malfunctioning were also reported in Etawah under Auriaya district, with voters saying they had to wait for hours at polling booths in Tilak Mahavidyalaya, Sahupur, Ajitmal and Dalelnagar to cast their votes.

Reports that a woman being allegedly beaten up after she did not cast her vote in favour of Samajwadi Party candidate came up from Ekghara village of the Achalda police station area.

Superintendent of Police, Auraiya, has ordered lodging of an FIR against a man who allegedly carried his mobile phone into a polling booth and posted a picture on social media while casting his vote.

Polling in this phase is specially important for the ruling BJP as it is aiming for a clean sweep by winning all 13 seats, including Kannauj, which was the only seat the Samajwadi Party had managed to win in 2014.

Kannauj was won by Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav.

On four of these 13 seats -- Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Mishrikh and Etawah-- the BJP has opted for new faces.

The BSP has fielded six candidates, while the SP seven. The BSP and the SP have formed an alliance are are contesting the elections together in the state.

While the BSP is contesting from Shahjahanpur (SC), Misrikh (SC), Farrukhabad, Akbarpur, Jalaun (SC) and Hamirpur, the SP has fielded candidates from Kheri, Hardoi (SC), Unnao, Etawah, Kannauj, Kanpur and Jhansi.

The Congress has fielded candidates from 12 parliamentary constituencies. It is not contesting Kannauj.

Some of the prominent candidates whose electoral fate will be decided in this phase are Dimple Yadav, former Union ministers Salman Khurshid (Farrukhabd) and Sriprakash Jaiswal (Kanpur) of Congress, UP Cabinet minister Satyadev Pachauri (Kanpur), Sakshi Maharaj of BJP (Unnao) and Annu Tandon of Congress (Unnao).

In Etawah, sitting MP Ashok Kumar Dohare, who was dropped by the BJP this time, is contesting on a Congress ticket.

The BJP has fielded MP Ram Shankar Katheria from Agra (SC). Katheria is also the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

The 13 seats also include three Lok Sabha seats of Bundelkhannd -- Jalaun (SC), Jhansi and Hamipur. The fourth Banda will go to polls in the fifth phase on May 6.

As many as 2,41,07,084 voters are eligible to exercise their voting rights at 27,516 polling booths located in 17,011 polling centres.

Almost all parties made strenuous efforts to win over the voters with electioneering reaching a feverish pitch on the last day of campaigning on Saturday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed two back-to-back rallies in Kannauj and Hardoi.

Congress' Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav and UP CM Yogi Adityanath also held road shows and election meetings on the last day.