Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections | Fourth phase: 22.62% voting recorded till 11 a.m.
The Hindu
Districts where the polling is being held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur
An average of 22.62% voting was recorded on February 23 in the first four hours of polling in 59 Assembly constituencies spread over nine districts of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission said.
The polling started at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m.
The districts where the polling is being held are Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur.
This is the fourth of the seven phases of the Assembly polls in the State. As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting.
According to the ECI, Pilibhit recorded 27.44% of votes, Kheri 26.28%, Sitapur 22.13%, Hardoi 20.13%, Unnao 21.36, Lucknow 21.41%, Rae Bareli 21.42% , Banda 23.92% and Fatehpur 22.52%.
In Lucknow, BSP president Mayawati, State Minister Brijesh Pathak, and a number of senior officials were among the early voters.
At several places, morning walkers came carrying voting slips to cast their votes as soon as the polling began. According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people, including 1.14 crore men and 99.3 lakh women, are eligible to vote, for whom 24,643 polling booths and 13,817 polling centres have been set up in this phase.
Hampi, the UNESCO-recognised historical site, was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565. Foreign travellers from Persia, Europe and other parts of the world have chronicled the wealth of the place and the unique cultural mores of this kingdom built on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. There are fine descriptions to be found of its temples, farms, markets and trading links, remnants of which one can see in the ruins now. The Literature, architecture of this era continue inspire awe.
Unfurling the zine handed to us at the start of the walk, we use brightly-coloured markers to draw squiggly cables across the page, starting from a sepia-toned vintage photograph of the telegraph office. Iz, who goes by the pronouns they/them, explains, “This building is still standing, though it shut down in 2013,” they say, pointing out that telegraphy, which started in Bengaluru in 1854, was an instrument of colonial power and control. “The British colonised lands via telegraph cables, something known as the All Red Line.”
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