Free the country from every fear, tweets Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Feb 10: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged people to come out and vote and free the country from all fears as polling for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections was underway.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "Free the country from all fears -- come out and vote," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

The battle for Uttar Pradesh began on Thursday with polling at 58 assembly seats spread across 11 districts in the western part of the state. Polling started at 7.00 AM and will continue till 6.00 PM, officials of the state election commission said here.

Campaigning in the constituencies going to vote in the first round of the seven-phase election in the politically crucial state ended on Tuesday evening.

Ministers whose fate would be decided in the first phase include Shrikant Sharma, Suresh Rana, Sandeep Singh, Kapil Dev Agarwal, Atul Garg and Chowdhury Lakshmi Narain.

As many as 623 candidates, including 73 women are in the fray in the first phase and around 2.28 core voters, including 1.24 crore men and 1.04 crore women are eligible to caste their francise, election officials said.

The first phase of the seven-phase assembly elections will cover the 'Jat-dominant belt' of the western part of Uttar Pradesh. As many as 623 candidates are in the fray for the first phase of the assembly polls in 58 seats of 11 UP districts. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.