Nearly 12% voters exercised their franchise in the first two hours in Uttar Pradesh, where polling is underway in 14 seats to decide the fate of 233 candidates.
UP Governor B L Joshi, BSP supremo Mayawati, Congress candidate from Lucknow Rita Bahuguna Joshi and BJP leader Kalraj Mishra were among those who exercised their franchise.
Dhaurahra witnessed 15.6% polling in the first two hours while Sitapur and Mishrikh recorded 14.8 and 10.82 % polling respectively.
Unnao recorded 9.58% polling, Mohanlalganj 8.6 %, Lucknow 9.9 %, Rae Bareli 10.4%, Kanpur 9.6%, Jalaun 10.8%, Jhansi 15.2%, Hamirpur 11.6%, Banda 13.54%, Fatehpur and Akbarpur had 11.62 and 14.1% respectively.
The fate of 233 candidates will be decided by 2.46 crore voters that include 1.34 crore men and 1.12 crore women.
A total of 25,485 polling centres have been set up in which 3554 have been identified as critical. The focus would be on Rae Bareli and Lucknow seats from where Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BJP President Rajnath Singh are in the fray.
Gandhi, who is contesting from her traditional Rae Bareli, has no major contestant against her with SP deciding not to field its candidate against her. The prestigious Lucknow seat, which is in the limelight with the entry of the BJP's national president, is set to witness a tricky contest.
Rajnath, who is facing a four-cornered fight, has two tasks at hand - first to maintain legacy of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and second to ensure a victory margin matching with his political stature.
