Voting underway for second phase of local elections in India's Uttar Pradesh

Voting for the second phase of local elections in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Wednesday began amid tight security and adequate arrangements, officials said.

Polling in the 67 constituencies spread over 11 districts started at 7:00 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) and would go on until 5:00 in the evening.

Reports said long queues of people including women both young and old were seen waiting to cast their ballots at the designated polling booths.

Over 64 percent voter turnout was recorded in the first phase of elections in the state.

According to officials, 721 candidates including 82 women and one third gender are in the fray.

"Polling is going on peacefully and until 9:00 a.m. around 10.69 percent votes were casted," election commission officials said.

On Tuesday Indian police arrested an editor of a news website for violating election norms by publishing an exit poll of the first phase of voting in the state.

Police officials have registered a case against the editorial board of the website and managing director of Resource Development International (RDI) - a consulting firm which actually carried out the exit poll survey - on the complaint of election commission officials.

Election Commission of India has put a ban on media houses from publishing or broadcasting exit polls so that the results portrayed should not influence voters in poll bound states.

Uttar Pradesh with a population of 200 million is the most populous state in India.

The local elections in Uttar Pradesh is seen as a referendum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of demonetisation - a step to ban high value currency notes.

Modi's Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) won 71 seats from Uttar Pradesh during 2014 India's general election. Modi, who is basically from the western state of Gujarat, also managed to get elected from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi constituency.

Modi's radical move in Nov. last year led to a cash shortage and was opposed by all opposition parties besides common people, who faced lotS of hardships in banks.

Ahead of elections, regional Samajwadi Party which was ruling the state, forged an alliance with Congress Party to regain power for the second consecutive term.

Political analysts say BJP is facing competition from the alliance besides another regional player - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has following among the low-caste Dalits and some Muslims.

Meanwhile, another northern state of India Uttarakhand also went to polls Wednesday morning. The elections in the state will be completed in the single phase.

"There are 70 constituencies in the state and today polling will take place for 69 Assembly seats and for the remaining one constituency - Karnprayag voting has been rescheduled for March 9, following the death of a candidate," an official said.

Counting of votes according to India's Election Commission would be carried out on March 11. Endit