Sixth phase of UP poll witnesses 45 per cent turnout

New Delhi, May 3 (UNI) The Election Commission today said a 45 per cent turnout had been recorded in the sixth phase of Uttar Pradesh (UP) elections spread over 52 Legislative Assembly Constituencies and two Lok Sabha bye-elections of Robertsganj and Mirzapur.

Briefing newsmen at the close of the sixth phase of poll, Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) R Balakrishnan said here that the election was totally peaceful and there was no incidents attempts of booth capturing or of attempts to cast false votes.

However, three arrests were made. One took place at Gazipur where one State Police constable, posted at Sitapur district, entered a pooling booth with a .315 bore pistal and was arrested.

The second and the third incident took place at a same polling booth where one Presiding Officer allowed a person to cast a vote without verifying his identity. Both of them were arrested.

The DEC said a total of 785 candidates were in the fray.

In order to tackle the Naxalites menance spread over 455 polling stations in the three districts of Sonebhadra, Mirzapur and Chandouli, the Commission took all necessary precautions which includes the deployment of one helicopter from the Indian Air Force and stationing of central para military forces to boost the moral of the local people in these areas.

''As a result of these steps, no untoward incident took place till the last report came in and the commission would now wait for the safe return of all the poll officials deployed there, he added.

UNI