Whatever the polling pitch, the start to the Uttar Pradesh polls the first phase, in the western part of the state was tepid. Not only that, the polling percentage was a good 3% percentage lower than what it was in the 2017 polls.
In the first phase a voter turnout of 60.17% was registered. This was over three percentage points lower than what was recorded (63.45%) for the same 58 seats in the 2017 Assembly election. Other than Gautam Buddha nagar, where there was a minor addition to the voting percentage, there was less interest in voting overall in these 58 seats.
As per the Election Commission, Shamli recorded the highest average turnout of 69.42% in 2017 65.48%; Muzaffarnagar recorded 65.34% in 2017 67.0%; Meerut 60.91% in 2017 65.12%; Baghpat 61.35% in 2017 64.25%; Ghaziabad 54.77% in 2017 58.6%; Hapur 60.50% in 2017 was 66.15%; Gautam Buddha Nagar 56.73% in 2017 56.4%; Bulandshahr 60.52% in 2017 64.47%; Aligarh 60.49% in 2017 66.48%; Mathura 63.28% in 2017 64.5%; Agra 60.33% in 2017 63.2%.
Of the 58 seats going to the polls, the BJP won 53 in the 2017 assembly elections. In the phase 1 seats, the BJP secured 46% (53 seats) votes, followed by the BSP 22.5% (2 seats) votes, the SP 14.3% (2 seats) votes and the RLD secure 7.1% (1 seat) votes.
 for the same 58 seats in the 2017 Assembly election.){kind=link}