Polling began in 40 Uttar Pradesh assembly segments at 7 a.m. on Wednesday and around 26% voters cast their votes till noon.

A total of 535 candidates, including 51 women, are in fray for these assembly seats spread across seven districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, known as Poorvanchal.

Over 1.41 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the seventh and last phase of the assembly elections, including 76.87 lakh men and 64.99 lakh women. A total of 706 voters are of the third gender.  

As many as 8,682 polling stations with 14,458 polling booths have been set up.

Polling will continue till 5 p.m. in 37 constituencies, whereas in Robertsganj, Duddhi in Sonebhadra district and Chakia segment in Chandauli will end by 4 p.m., an Election Commission official said.