Over 24 percent polling till 11 am in UP

Lucknow, Apr 11 Over 24 percent polling has been recorded till 11 am in the eight Lok Sabha seats of western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday in the first leg of the seven-phased general elections.

Three Union ministers- V K Singh (Ghaziabad), Satyapal Singh (Baghpat) and Mahesh Sharma (Gautam Buddha Nagar) are in the quarrel in this stage.

In a statement issued here, the Election Commission stated, 25.60 percent polling was recorded in Saharanpur; 24 percent in Kairana; 26.4 percent in Muzaffarnagar; 25.10 percent in Bijnor; 21.80 percent in Meerut; 25 percent in Baghpat; 22.40 percent in Ghaziabad and 24.24 percent in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is endeavoring full scale endeavors to hold all the eight Lok Sabha seats while the youngster Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance also is going whole hog to upset the saffron party's apple cart.

In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the BJP had won all the eight seats- - Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar.

The communally sensitive seat of Muzaffarnagar will see a clash of titans with RLD boss Ajit Singh locking horns with sitting BJP official Sanjeev Balyan.

For the saffron party, the Kairana parliamentary constituency holds immense significance as it had tasted defeat in the Lok Sabha by-election a year ago.

Elaborate security arrangements of action have been made for this phase and more than one lakh security work force have been sent to guarantee free and reasonable polls, Additional Director General, Law and Order of Uttar Pradesh Police Anand Kumar said.

In the first stage, 1,50,65,682 voters- - 82,24,835 men, 68,39,833 ladies and 1,014 third gender- are eligible to exercise their franchise in 16,518 booths set up inside 6,716 polling centres to decide the fate of 96 candidates.

Prominent among those in the fray include- Imran Masood (Congress) and Raghav Lakhanpal (BJP) from Saharanpur, and Tabassum Begum (SP) from Kairana.

In Bijnor, Congress applicant and previous UP clergyman (amid Mayawati's residency) Naseemuddin Siddiqui will challenge Raja Bharatendra Singh, while in Meerut, BJP's Rajendra Agarwal will seek after a rehash of 2014, while BSP's Hazi Mohammad Yaqub will attempt checkmate him.

In Baghpat, Union minister Satyapal Singh is pitted against Jayant Chaudhary (RLD), son of Ajit Singh.

Dolly Sharma of the Congress is contesting against Union minister V K Singh, while in Gautam Buddh Nagar, it is Union minister and BJP applicant Mahesh Sharma versus Arvind Kumar Singh of the Congress.

Politically crucial Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Of the 80 seats in UP, SP is challenging on 37 seats, BSP on 38 seats, and the RLD will challenge on three seats. UP will have seven-phase polling.