NEW DELHI, May 8: Millions of Indians voted on Tuesday in the last phase of a crucial seven-stage election in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.
The polls come halfway through the five-year term of the national government and are seen as a key test of popularity for the ruling Congress party and the main opposition BJP.
Exit polls from the six previous rounds held over a month show Mayawati Kumari, a woman from the lowest Dalit caste and head of the Bahujan Samaj Party, edging past incumbent chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s socialist Samajwadi party.
Voting in UP impacts heavily on national politics as the state sends 80 MPs to India’s 545-member national parliament.
However, at least 162 of the 934 contestants in the fray on Tuesday had criminal records, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Tight security arrangements were in place, with more than 60,000 personnel on guard against any election irregularities in a state notorious for crime.
In Tuesday’s ballot, nearly 45 per cent of the 18 million voters in nine districts exercised franchise to elect 59 legislators, a spokesman for the autonomous Election Commission said.
The Congress party should marginally better its previous tally of 25 seats to the 403-seat assembly after campaigning by national party chief Italian-born Sonia Gandhi and her children, said political analyst Yashwant Deshmukh.
Previous exit polls also showed the BJP was likely to do well in the state polls, which began on April 7.
This year, the BJP won polls in the northern states of Uttarakhand and Punjab.
Votes from Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with 180 million people, will be counted on Friday.—AFP
