LUCKNOW: Seven out of 10 municipal corporations, which went to polls in the first phase of urban local body election in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, registered a decline in voter turnout as compared to 2017.
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The first phase of polling in 37 districts registered an average 52% voter turnout, which was 5.52% less than the poll percentage recorded in these districts in the 2017 elections.
According to the data provided by the State Election Commission, smaller centres and rural pockets have fared much better than the urban parts of the state.
For example, the highest turnout in the state was registered in Saharanpur’s Behat nagar panchayat (86.26%) followed by Mahona (84%) and Gosainganj (80.76%) nagar panchayats of Lucknow.
Among 10 municipal corporations where polling was held on Thursday, only Moradabad (43.32%), Prayagraj (31.35%) and Gorakhpur (36.59%) registered a rise in voting percentage.
Among others, state capital Lucknow registered 36.97% turnout against 38.64% in 2017 elections. Similarly, Varanasi registered 40.42% (41.64% in 2017), Saharanpur 55.8% (61.32% in 2017), Firozabad 51.7 % (56.16 % in 2017), Mathura 38.52% (40.18% in 2017), Jhansi 47.19% (52.19% in 2017) and Agra 37.07% (40.2% in 2017) in Thursday’s polling.
In Jaunpur, voter turnout was 55.56% against 54.91% in 2017.
Besides Saharanpur’s Behat and Lucknow’s Mahona and Gosaniganj, other nagar panchayats which registered high turnout were Hardoi’s Gopamau (80.57%), Jhansi’s Badagaon (79.83%), Rae Bareli’s Maharajganj (79.81%), Lakhimpur Kheri’s Barbar (79.8%) and Agra’s Jagnar (79.16%).
Voting was held in total 10 municipal corporations, 819 municipal wards, 103 nagar palika parishad, 2740 wards of nagar palika parishad, 275 nagar panchayats and 3,645 nagar panchayat wards of 37 districts.
These districts include Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Mainpuri, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Hardoi, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Varanasi, Chandauli and Jaunpur.
