LS polls: 12.89 percent voter turnout recorded till 9 am in Uttar Pradesh

Polling began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.

According to the Election Commission, Amethi recorded a voter turnout of 13.45 per cent till 9 am, Banda 14.57 per cent, Barabanki 12.73 per cent, Faizabad 14 per cent, Fatehpur 14.28 per cent, Gonda 9.55 per cent, Hamirpur 13.61 per cent, Jalaun 12.80 per cent, Kaisarganj 13.04 per cent, Kaushambi 10.49 per cent, Lucknow 10.39 per cent, Mohanlalganj 13.86 per cent and Raebareli 13.60 per cent.

The polling percentage in the Lucknow East assembly constituency stood at 10.88 per cent.

Besides Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow) and Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj), Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur) and Union Minister of State for MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma (Jalaun).

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is in the fray from Rae Bareli, which was represented by his mother and former party president Sonia Gandhi earlier.

Over 2.71 crore voters are eligible to exercise their voting rights in the 14 constituencies and 144 candidates are in the fray.

The BJP gave tickets to 11 of its sitting Lok Sabha MPs in this phase, while it has fielded new candidates in Barabanki (SC) seat and Kaisarganj.

From the INDIA bloc, the Congress has fielded K L Sharma from Amethi, Tanuj Punia from Barabanki (SC) and Pradeep Jain 'Aditya' from Jhansi while Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates are in the poll fray on the rest of the seats.

Defence Minister Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow. He is pitted against sitting SP MLA Ravidas Mehrotra from Lucknow Central.

Union minister Irani has been fielded from the neighbouring Amethi constituency.

In the Kaisarganj Lok Sabha constituency, the contest is between BJP's Karan Bhushan Singh, son of former MP and ex-president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and SP's Bhagat Ram.

The Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which covers the temple town of Ayodhya, will see a contest between sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh, who is eyeing a hat-trick, and Awadhesh Prasad, the SP MLA from Milkipur (SC) assembly constituency in Ayodhya district.

In Hamirpur, the poll contest is between BJP's Kunwar Pushpendra Singh Chandel, eyeing a third term, and SP's Ajendra Singh Lodhi.

In Gonda, BJP's Kirti Vardhan Singh, who is eyeing a fifth term, is up against SP's Shreya Verma.

The electoral contest in Banda is between R K Singh Patel, who is seeking a third term, and Krishna Devi Shivshankar Patel of the SP.

Vinod Kumar Sonkar, who is eyeing a hat-trick of wins, is up against SP's Pushpendra Saroj, son of SP leader Indrajeet Saroj, in the Kaushambi (SC) constituency.

Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma is eyeing a sixth term and is pitted against Narayan Das Ahirwar of the SP in Jalaun.

The Lucknow East assembly seat bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023.