Continuing the trend that began with the first phase of polling on February 8, Uttar Pradesh recorded 57.25 per cent polling in the third phase on Wednesday.
The voter turnout is more compared to 2007, when the same region recorded a voting percentage of 42.56.
The constituency that recorded maximum polling was Chandauli with 62.5 per cent and the one with minimum polling percentage was Sant Ravidas Nagar with 55.6 per cent.
No untoward incident was reported in this phase. A significant development is the high polling percentage in the Naxal-affected districts including Chandauli.
Polling in the third phase was held in 56 Assembly seats, spread across 10 districts, including Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar (Amethi), Sultanpur, Kaushambhi, Allahabad, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra.
More than 1.75 crore voters cast their votes to seal the fate of the 1,018 candidates, including 77 women candidates.
According to chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha, nearly 2,025 polling stations were identified as sensitive and 1,766 as hyper-sensitive.
The CEO said that polling was held at 18,374 polling booths at 11,607 polling stations where 1,122 video cameras and 1,190 digital cameras have been installed to maintain a vigil on the poll process.
Tight security arrangements were made in districts like Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonebhadra that are known to be Naxal-infested areas.
Prominent candidates whose fate was sealed in Saturday’s polling include former UP Assembly Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, former BJP state president Om Prakash Singh, BSP ministers Inderjit Saroj, Nand Gopal Nandi and Vinod Singh and sacked BSP ministers Ranganath Misra and Rakesh Dhar Tripathi.
Mafia dons who are testing political waters in this phase include Brijesh Singh, Munna Bajrangi, Ateeq Ahmad, and Vijay Misra. Interestingly, in this phase 121 candidates with a criminal background are in the fray.