Lucknow: Around 28 per cent voters exercised their franchise by 1 pm in the second phase of polling in 17 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.
Election office sources in Lucknow said that polling in all the constituencies has been peaceful so far, barring a stray incident in Gonda.
The polling that began on a slow note is expected to pick up, specially in the rural areas, later while the urban areas saw a fairly normal voter turnout in the early hours.
Acute heat wave conditions sweeping large parts of the state has been attributed as the cause of low turnout so far.
Almost 2.50 crore voters including 1.14 crore women voters are voting today to decide the fate of 324 candidates in 17 constituencies spread over 20 districts of the state.
Prominent among the candidates who are in the fray in this phase are Rahul Gandhi, Beni Prasad Verma, Sanjay Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Jagdambika Pal, Mata Prasad Pandey and Ratna Singh.