Strengthen democracy by casting your vote: PM tells people

With voting underway for the fourth round in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday urged people to come out and vote.

Voting for 59 Assembly constituencies spread over nine districts in Uttar Pradesh began on Wednesday morning.

”Today is the fourth round of voting in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. I request all the voters to contribute in strengthening democracy by casting their valuable votes,” Modi said in a tweet in Hindi.

This is the fourth phase of the Assembly polls in the state, where elections are to be held in seven rounds. As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this phase.

According to the Election Commission, 2.3 crore people — 1.14 crore men and 99.3 lakh women – in these nine districts are eligible to vote, for whom 24,643 polling booths and 13,817 poling centres have been set up for casting of ballots.

The nine districts are: Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda and Fatehpur.

Lakhimpur Kheri is where last year four farmers were mowed down by cars allegedly carrying BJP workers. Eight people, including the farmers, were killed in violence there on October 3.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10.