Varanasi: Brisk voting is reported on Wednesday in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the first two hours in the seventh and final phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. A large number of women and senior citizens queued up outside the polling stations to cast their votes.

Aware that it was International Women's Day on the day of polling, most women told the waiting media outside the polling booths that they were voting to ensure safety and security for women and girls. Professors and members from the teaching fraternity turned up in large numbers to cast their votes in the early hours in the Benaras Hindu University (BHU).