Polling underway for fourth phase of local elections in India's Uttar Pradesh

Voting for the fourth phase of local elections was going on in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, officials said.

Polling in the 53 constituencies spread over 12 districts started at 7 a.m. local time and would go on until 5 p.m. in the afternoon.

Reports said long queues of people were seen waiting to cast their ballots at designated polling booths.

"The districts which are going for polls in this phase are Allahabad, Chitrakoot, Banda, Fatehpur, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Kaushambi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Pratapgarh and Raebareli," an election official said. "Polling is going on smoothly."

Authorities have made adequate security measures in the poll bound areas.

"Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling," a police official said. "Most of the polling centers are manned by paramilitary forces and patrolling by security forces has been intensified."

The previous three phases recorded over 60 percent voter turnout in the state.

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 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision of demonetization - a step to ban high value currency notes.

Modi's Bhartiya Janta Party 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 November led to a cash shortage and was opposed by all opposition parties.

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