In Utter Pradesh, about 35 percent polling has been reported in first six hours for the third phase of three tier local body polls. Voting started at 7 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m. In Jhansi, Chitrakoot and Mirzapur districts it had begun half an hour earlier and will be completed at 1730 hours for security reasons.

AIR Allahabad correspondent reports that maximum about 32 percent voters have exercised their franchise in Jyotiba Phule Nagar and minimum about 18 percent turnout is reported in Mirzapur district. Voting is taking place in Aligarh Municipal Corporation, 45 Nagar Palika Parishad and 101 Nagar Panchayats spread over 20 districts. A total of 6544 polling booths have been set up for more than 54 lakhs 53 thousand voters. Of them about 5000 thousand have been identified as sensitive and hyper sensitive and extra measures have been taken for these polling booths. Maximum about 600 polling booths have been identified as sensitive in Aligarh district followed by 440 in Shahjahanpur.

Over 15,800 candidates, including more than 6,000 women are in the fray for phase three polling. Of them, 10 ward members for Nagar Palika Parishad and Nagar Panchayats have been declared elected unopposed. 9 candidates are in contest for Mayoral post for Aligarh Municipal Corporation.

The State Election Commissioner has made massive security arrangements for free and fair poll. The Commission has also deployed observers for each poll bound districts to ensure independent polling. First and second phase of elections were held on June 24 and 27th. In the state capital Lucknow, polling was held a day earlier on June 23.