Lucknow, Feb 5 (IANS): Voting for the by-elections in Milkipur Assembly seat of Ayodhya, started at 7 am this morning and saw moderate polling in the early hours. According to the Election Commission, the constituency recorded 29.86 per cent polling till 11 am.

The Milkipur constituency is a prestige battle between the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP), particularly in light of recent by-elections for nine seats which saw fierce contest between two parties.

The polling has largely remained peaceful, with security personnel keeping tight vigil on all polling booths.

SP, the main opposition party on Wednesday put up several posts on social media and accused the administration of frightening the voters with their ‘intimidatory tactics’.

Akhilesh Yadav took to X to flag the issue and said that they will escalate the matter before the poll panel.

“The Election Commission should immediately take cognizance of the pictures related to this news that Ayodhya police is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur, in which senior police officers are also involved. This is a democratic crime of indirectly influencing voting by creating fear among voters. Such people should be removed immediately and punitive action should be taken,” he wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Ayodhya Inspector General of Police Praveen Kumar, talking to journalists said that voting was going on peacefully at all the centres, with magistrates and police officers continuously patrolling the area.

"Paramilitary forces are monitoring the situation at important polling stations," he informed.

A day ago, the Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said that the polling for by-elections in Milkipur constituency will start at 7 am and conclude at 5 pm.

“No voter will be allowed to cast their vote if their name was not on the electoral list. They will have to bring their voter ID or any other document approved by the ECI,” he told the newsmen.