People wait in a queue to cast their votes at a polling booth during the Sardarshahar Assembly seat byelection, at Panpaliya village in Sardarshahar, December 5, 2022. (PTI)
Amid allegations by Samajwadi Party of gross anomalies during polling in the three by-elections held in the state on Monday, Rampur Sadar Assembly seat recorded a sharp decline in voter turnout as compared to the Assembly elections held in March this year.
By 5 pm, an hour before the scheduled end of voting, Rampur Sadar recorded only 31.94 per cent polling as compared to the 56.61 per cent polling in March. In Khatauli, 56.46 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm. The turnout was 69.79 per cent in March.
In Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, where both SP and BJP ran a high-voltage campaign, over 53 per cent votes were polled till 5 pm. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat for the fifth time, 56.67 per cent polling was recorded.
A record 80.5 per cent polling was registered in the by-election to the Padampur Assembly seat in Odisha’s Bargarh Monday as voting ended peacefully without any untoward incident despite Maoist threat in a few pockets of the constituency, said officials.
Bargarh district collector Monisha Banerjee said according to the latest information, the voting percentage is estimated at 80.5 per cent. Official sources said the final voting percentage may change. The constituency has witnessed 79.05 per cent in the 2019 Assembly polls. “Though we had received some complaints from certain booths, we found no irregularities when we visited the places. Voting ended peacefully and the EVMs are being stored in the strong room with proper security,” said Banerjee.
An estimated voting of 69.91 per cent was recorded till evening in the by-elections of the Sardarshahar Assembly constituency in Rajasthan on Monday, said officials. Voting started at 8 am amid tight security arrangements at all the 295 booths set up in the segment.
According to officials, till 5:30 pm on Monday, 69.91 per cent polling was recorded in the constituency with 2.89 lakh registered voters.
A total of 57.9 per cent of 3.11 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the by-election to Kurhani assembly seat in Bihar on Monday, officials said.
Polling began at 7 am across 320 booths in the constituency and continued till 6 pm, they said. Tight security arrangements were in place across all the booths, manned by central paramilitary forces besides the local police. By-poll to the assembly segment in Muzaffarpur district has been necessitated due to the disqualification of RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani.
A voter turnout of 64.86 per cent was recorded in Bhanupratappurin Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-hit Kanker district, where polling began at 7 am amid tight security and concluded at 3 pm on Monday. The polling process was by and large peaceful, an official said.
Seven candidates contested in the constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, though it was largely seen as a direct contest between the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Polling was sluggish in Rampur Sadar with the assembly segment, earlier held by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, registering around 33.94 per cent turnout. Meanwhile, Khatauli segment recorded 56.46 per cent polling, PTI reported. While over 81 per cent of 2.57 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the byelection to the Padampur constituency, the voter turnout in other segments was 72.09 per cent in Sardarshahar, 58 per cent in Kurhani, and 64.86 per cent in Bhanupratappur.
