LIVE: 53% voting recorded in Uttarakhand, 54% in UP till 3 pm

Saharanpur, Bijnore, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri and Badayun to go on polls in UP

3.56 pm: 54.27 per cent voter turnout recorded till 3 pm in Uttar Pradesh.

3.55 pm: 53 per cent voter turnout recorded till 3 pm in Uttarakhand Assembly                 2017" 

3.33 pm: Over 45 per cent voting till 2 pm.

2.25 pm: 40 per cent voter turnout recorded till 1 pm in Uttarakhand ELECTION 2017

2.13 pm: 42.05 per cent voting registered till 1 pm in Uttar Pradesh.

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D-day for Uttarakhand today

On Wednesday, the state will see its Assembly elections after a year-long political instability

 

Only N D Tiwari has given a five-year-long stable government in to Uttarakhand Elections 2017 After Tiwari’s exit, political instability kept haunting the hill state as chief ministers were changed repeatedly by both Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress.

And last year, the instability reached its peak when the Harish Rawat government was dismissed and later reinstated.Uttarakhand assembly elections 2017

On Wednesday, the state will see its Assembly elections after a year-long political instability, making it a day of reckoning. The polling will be held for 69 constituencies after the election for the lone Karanprayag seat was countermanded following the death of Kuldip Singh Kanwasi, a BSP candidate. The polling in Karanprayag will be held on March 9. “Preparations for the polling have already been made,” said an Election Commission official.

The ruling Congress is facing a stiff challenge from BJP in almost all the seats.

In more than 20 seats, the contest is likely to be very close. Even a difference of 100 votes can change dimensions, especially in Assembly seats such as Vikasnagar, Dehradun Cantt, Narendra nagar, Doiwala and Ranikhet, claimed political experts. But hours before the polling, a purported sting operation accusing Rawat of bribing Dan Singh Bhandari, a former BJP MLA, created flutter in the political circles of Uttarakhand.

Bhandari, who quit from BJP and the state Assembly last year, is now contesting on a Congress ticket from Bhimtal constituency in Kumaon region.

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Uttarakhand Elections: The odds of a new chief minister

In the 2007 polls, BJP came out as largest party with 35 seats, while the Congress won 21 seats

 

Amid tight security, the polling for the single-phase Uttarakhand assembly elections 2017 began on Wednesday and the one question in everyone's mind is whether this Himalayan state, which was carved out from the gigantic Uttar Pradesh in 2000, is going to have a new chief minister or the incumbent supremacy will continue.

The rebel party leaders, certainly, hold the key in the outcome in the hilly state where two prominent parties – the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Congress — are trying every bit to seek the favour of every section of voters. Both parties expelled many leaders ahead of the elections, who then walked into the rival camps. While the BJP has fielded candidates, who have served the Congress, from 13 seats, the grand old party is trying its luck with seven erstwhile-BJP MLAs.

In the last leg of the election campaign, the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asked to waive off loans worth crores which were taken by some 50 rich families, instead of an initiative against black money as Prime Minister Narendra Modi projected.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi, in his last rally in Pithoragarh, tried to strike an emotional chord where the majority of people are in the Army and other security forces. Starting from OROP and surgical strike, he went on to announce many schemes for the betterment of Army personnel.

Reports of the cold war between Uttarakhand Elections 2017 Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kishore Upadhyay emerged as the polls drew near. Besides fighting with the BJP, Harish Rawat is also combating for power within the state unit of his party.

The results of the polls will be out on March 11, 2017.

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