Amid tight security, the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began on Thursday with polling for 53 constituencies.

In the fourth phase, there are 680 candidates, including 61 women, and about 30,000 security personnel have been deployed at polling centres to deal with any law and order situation during the voting.

Polling at 10 AM: The polling was largely peaceful and till about 10 am, it recorded 15 per cent voting, according to the UP chief electoral officer.

Polling at 11 AM: In Allahabad district, voting was under way on a brisk note in all 12 assembly seats with 21.22 per cent voters having exercised their franchise by 11 am. Leaders who have cast their votes in the city included West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya and the party's national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh.

Polling at midday: Over 40 per cent of the 1.84 crore voters exercised their franchise till midday in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 1.84 crore voters is estimated. Around 1 crore of the voters are males and 84 lakh women. The third gender includes 1,034 voters.

The main political parties in fray are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Prominent personalities include Utkarsha Mishra, son of former opposition leader in the outgoing assembly Swamy Prasad Maurya, independent Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiyya, Aradhna Mishra, daughter of Raja Sabha member Pramod Tiwari, and Ujjwal Raman Singh, son of Samajwadi Party leader Reoti Raman Singh.

The constituency with most candidates is Allahabad North, with 26 in fray and the constituencies with the least number of nominees are Khaga and Kunda with six each in fray.

Lalitpur has the largest electorate (453,162) and Ayahshah the least (260,439). There are 19,487 polling stations in this phase.

The state assembly elections began on February 11 with polling for 73 constituencies. It recorded 64.22 per cent voting.

Polling for the third phase was held on February 19 in 69 constituencies. It was held in 12 districts and recorded 61.16 per cent voting.

Polling for the fifth phase will be held on February 27.

(With inputs from agencies)