LUCKNOW, Oct. 24 -- Polling for 11 seats in the UP Legislative Council (MLC), comprising five graduate and six teachers' constituencies, saw 55.24% turnout on Friday amid allegations of bogus voting, booth capturing, fake voters, misuse of government machinery and clashes between supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) in various districts. Clashes between BJP and SP supporters were reported in Fatehpur, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Mainpuri and Farrukhabad districts during polling. Extra police force was deployed to control the situation. A total of 152 candidates are in the fray for the five graduate and six teachers' constituencies but there is a straight contest between the BJP and SP candidates in all 11 Legislative Council seats. The stakes are high for both the BJP and SP in the election as the results of the seats are likely to build momentum for the 2027 assembly election. The teachers' constituencies, where BJP and SP candidates are locked in a tough contest, recorded a high turnout of voters, including Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituency (79.01%), Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituency (73.69%), Varanasi Teachers' constituency (68.21%), Agra Teachers' constituency (63.84%) and Meerut Teachers' constituency (60.80%). Among the six teachers' constituencies, the Lucknow Teachers' constituency recorded the lowest turnout at 50.92%. However, the graduate constituencies recorded low polling. The Agra graduate constituency recorded 51% polling followed by Allahabad-Jhansi graduate constituency (41.40%), Varanasi graduate constituency (41.01%) and Meerut graduate constituency (39.81%). Among the graduate constituencies, too, Lucknow recorded lowest polling at 38.02%. The polling started on a slow note in the morning but picked up in the afternoon. Till 10 am, 8.58% of the votes were polled, but by 2 pm, 40.87% votes were polled across the 11 constituencies. The Election Commission set up 2,697 polling stations in 72 districts for 1,481,310 voters to exercise their franchise rights. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav cast his vote for the graduate constituency in Saifai in Etawah district while the deputy chief minister exercised his franchise in Lucknow. Yadav alleged that the administration and BJP members prevented SP supporters from voting. He appealed to the people to exercise their franchise rights to save democracy. Countering Yadav's allegation, MSME minister Bhupendra Chaudhary said the SP chief was tarnishing the image of constitutional institutions. Earlier, he had a problem with the electronic voting machines (EVMs); now he has a problem with the ballot papers used in the Legislative Council elections, he alleged. The Election Commission deployed 11 observers to monitor the voting. In addition, 1,041 sector magistrates and 456 zonal magistrates were also deployed. Along with the deployment of micro-observers at polling stations, arrangements for videography were also made....