Voters wait in a queue at a polling station to cast their votes for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, in Kairana, on April 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Voting concluded for eight Parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election on Friday. The Election Commission recorded 57.54% voter turnout till 5 p.m.

In the first phase, eight Parliamentary seats in Western U.P. went to vote – Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Nagina (SC), Moradabad, Rampur, and Pilibhit.

Rampur recorded 52.42% voter turnout while Moradabad stood at 58.06%. Pilibhit marked a 58.95% turnout at the time of going to press.

The SP alleged that BJP engaged in fraudulent voting in many of the constituencies. “The BJP leaders and booth agents are casting fake votes at booth number 237 in Moradabad’s Kanth; attempts are being made to capture the booth in the presence of the administration. The Election Commission should take cognisance, and ensure fair voting,” the SP said in a statement. The SP made similar claims about booths in Rampur, Kairana, and Muzaffarnagar as well.

In response, the BJP said, “Seeing its imminent defeat, the SP is engaging in false propaganda.”

In the first phase, seats like Moradabad, Rampur, Saharanpur, and Muzaffarnagar with a substantial Muslim electorate went for election. Of these eight seats, which had 80 competing candidates, 73 men and seven women were in the fray from various parties. Roughly 1.43 crore voters, of which 76.23 lakh are men and 67.14 lakh women, were eligible to cast their franchise. The campaign witnessed the BJP leaders pushing the Hindutva narrative with words like fatwa, curfew, riots, exodus as part of their campaign vocabulary, while the Opposition sought votes to save India’s Constitution from the threat of authoritarianism.

Prominent candidates in this phase are Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan from Muzaffarnagar, U.P. Minister Jitin Prasada from Pilibhit, Congress leader Imran Masood from Saharanpur, and Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad from Nagina.