Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked voters to exercise their franchise and “strengthen the democracy” as voting for 59 assembly constituencies spread across nine districts of Uttar Pradesh is underway.
“Today is the fourth round of voting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. I request all the voters to make their contribution to strengthening the democracy by using their valuable votes,” PM Modi tweeted on Wednesday.
The polling for the fourth phase of the Assembly polls in the state started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this phase of the seven-phase elections.
The districts where the polling is being held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur.
Among the prominent candidates in this phase are Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brijesh Pathak, SP’s national spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria, former SP minister Abhishek Mishra, former Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly deputy speaker Nitin Agarwal and Aditi Singh.
Earlier in the 2017 Assembly elections, of the 59 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 51 and four had gone to Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, while three to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. The BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) had bagged one seat.
