Millions brave heat to vote in Uttar Pradesh

INDIA: Millions braved a searing heatwave to vote in the fifth leg of polls in northern Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.

Election officials said 46 percent of more than six million voters turned out for the polls, which come half way through the national government’s five-year term.

Voters also turned out in strength in Rae Barelli and Amethi, the two traditional home constituencies of India’s iconic Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

Bishnoi and other state government officials blamed the comparatively low turnout on the heatwave smothering most of northern India.

Exit polls from the earlier rounds show Mayawati Kumari, a woman from India’s lowest Dalit caste who leads the Bahujan Samaj Party, edging ahead of incumbent chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Saturday’s vote was seen as crucial for Yadav, whose regional Samajwadi party picked up more than half the seats in this area in state elections in 2002.

He is up for re-election in the current round.

The Congress party headed by Sonia Gandhi was likely to better its record of 25 seats in the 403-member state assembly, polls said.

They showed the BJP, upset by Congress in national elections in 2004, was likely to do well in the state polls, which began April 7 and end on May 8.

New Delhi, Sunday, AFP