Bypolls: Low Turnout in Rampur, Moderate to High in Other Constituencies

More than 80 per cent of 2.57 lakh voters on Monday exercised their franchise till 6 pm in the bypoll to Odisha’s Padampur assembly constituency amid tight security, an Election Commission official said.

The voting, which began at 7 am, continued beyond the closure time of 4 pm as about 12,000 people were in queues to cast their votes.

the number of voters waiting in 71 of the 319 polling stations dipped to 4,000, he said.

“Voting in Padampur assembly segment was smooth and no untoward incident was reported. A record 80.5 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 6 pm, with 4,000 people still in the queues,” Bargarh District Collector and District Election Officer Manisha Banerjee told reporters in Padampur.

Police teams responded to all the allegations and there was no incident of rigging or booth-capturing, she said.

Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer S K Lohani said many polling parties have already returned to their destinations by evening and EVMs were being brought amid tight security.

As many as nine companies comprising around 900 personnel of Central Armed Police Forces and 1,400 state police personnel were deployed across the assembly segment, which borders Nuapada and Bolangir districts, and Chhattisgarh.

Security forces were deployed in all the 319 polling stations, while some jawans also undertook area domination exercises to prevent an influx of criminal elements into the constituency, a senior police officer said.

A total of 2.57 lakh voters, including 12 members of the transgender community, were eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll.

Ten candidates are in the fray for the bypoll. The ruling BJD has fielded Barsha Singh Bariha, the daughter of Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha whose death necessitated the by-election, while opposition BJP’s nominee is former MLA and party’s Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit.

Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu has earlier won the seat three times.

Noting that votes will be counted on December 8, Banerjee said full-proof arrangements have been made for the protection of the strong rooms where the EVMs will be stored.

She said there will be at least 23 rounds of vote-counting in 14 tables.

Moderate to high turnout was recorded on Monday in by-elections to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat and five assembly seats in as many states, while only around 34 per cent of electors cast their votes in Rampur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after the death of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, registered 53.31 turnout while Khatauli Assembly segment in Muzaffarnagar recorded 56.46 per cent polling, according to the Election Commission app.

Main rivals BJP and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh accused each other of rigging and complained to Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla.

The turnout was 76 per cent in Padampur in Odisha, nearly 70 per cent in Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, 64.86 per cent in Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh and around 58 per cent in Kurhani in Bihar and, with no major untoward incident reported.

The figures are likely to be updated later by election officials after the compilation of data.

While two Assembly seats were held by the Congress, one each was with the BJP, BJD, RJD and SP.

The bypolls in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated after SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified following their conviction in separate cases.

At a press conference in Saifai, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP government of misusing the official machinery. He alleged that the Rampur administration and the police were not allowing people to come out and vote.

A BJP delegation led by the party’s State General Secretary J P S Rathore complained to the Chief Electoral Officer against the Samajwadi Party.

“The issues on which the party is registering its complaints are all false… Po-BJP workers are being intimidated by Samajwadi Party’s anarchists in Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency,” the BJP alleged.

Following its defeat in Azamgarh and the Rampur Lok Sabha by-election, considered key Samajwadi party bastions, the latest by-elections are crucial for the Akhilesh Yadav-led party.

In Mainpuri, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav is pitted against BJP’s Raghuraj Singh Shakya, once a close associate of Shivpal Singh Yadav. It had recorded a turnout of 56.61 per cent in the 2019 polls.

In the Rampur Sadar Assembly segment, the BJP has fielded Akash Saxena, the son of former party legislator Shiv Bahadur Saxena, against Azam Khan’s protege Asim Raja. It had recorded 56.61 per cent polling in Assembly election early this year, but on Monday the figure was 33.94 per cent.

In Khatauli, the main fight is between Vikram Singh Saini’s wife Rajkumari Saini and Madan Bhaiya of the Rashtriya Lok Dal. It has seen a turnout of 68.88 per cent in the last assembly polls.

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).

BJP candidate Brahmanand Netam and Congress nominee Savitri Mandavi cast their votes in Kaswahi and Telgara polling booths respectively.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA and state Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Manoj Singh Mandavi after a heart attack on October 16. The Congress fielded his wife in the by-election.

According to an official, 69.91 percent voting was recorded by 5.30 pm at Sardarshahar seat in Rajasthan’s Churu district.

A total of 2,89,843 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the byelection necessitated following the demise of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma on October 9.

The Congress has fielded Sharma’s son Anil Kumar, while the BJP has nominated former MLA Ashok Kumar.

Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are due next year.

Nearly 76 per cent of 2.57 lakh voters exercised their franchise in Odisha’s Padampur assembly constituency, an Election Commission official said.

The voting, which began at 7 am, continued beyond the scheduled close at 4 pm as several people were in the queue in 89 of the 319 polling stations, he said.

The boundary gates of all the booths, however, were closed at 4 pm, the official said.

“There was no report of any untoward incident in the entire Padampur assembly constituency during the voting process,” Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani said.

The ruling BJD fielded Barsha Singh Bariha, the daughter of Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha whose death necessitated the by-election, while the opposition BJP’s nominee is the former MLA and party’s Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit.

Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu has earlier won the seat three times.

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.

The success of JD(U) candidate Manoj Singh Kushwaha, a former MLA, will cement Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s position, while a loss may embolden his detractors.

The BJP has fielded Kedar Gupta who had lost to Sahani in the 2020 assembly polls by a slender margin of about 700 votes. The RJD is backing the JD(U) in this by-election.

The outcomes of the bypolls will not have any impact on the central or the state governments as ruling parties enjoy comfortable majority at both levels.

The counting of votes for the single parliamentary and six assembly seats will be held on December 8, coinciding with the ballot count for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

Over 54 per cent voting was registered till 3 pm on Monday in the Sardarshahar assembly by-election in Rajasthan’s Churu district. Voting started at 8 am amid tight security arrangements at all 295 booths set up in the segment. It will conclude at 5 pm, an official said.

54.95 per cent polling was recorded, he said. A total of 2,89,843 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma on October 9.

The Congress has fielded late Sharma’s son Anil Kumar, while former MLA Ashok Kumar is the BJP candidate for the seat.

In a tweet to poll officials, SP candidate Dimple Yadav complained of booth capturing. She said: “It is being heard that in Mainpuri Sadar Vidhansabha, booth numbers 249, 250 and 251 are being captured by senior officials themselves by dumping votes. Election Commission should take cognizance, action should be taken against BJP administration.”

A voter turnout of 64.86 per cent was recorded on Monday in the bypoll to Bhanupratappur Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district, a poll official here said. The figure is provisional as reports from some polling booths located in sensitive locations were yet to be received, he said.

Polling began at 7 am amid tight security and concluded at 3 pm. No untoward incident was reported in the constituency during the polling process which was by and large peaceful, the official said.

There has been a 40% voter turn out in Mainpuri amid Samajwadi Party’s allegations of malpractices.

Bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh saw moderate voting till 1 pm, even as the two main contenders Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP accused each other of disrupting the electoral process.

The SP, through its official Twitter handle, alleged use of police force and also said officials on election duty were preventing people from casting their votes.

It also posted a video accusing the BJP agents of distributing money in Mainpuri’s Bhogaon area.

Moderate polling was recorded till noon in the bypoll to six assembly constituencies in five states and the Mainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh on Monday amid complaints of glitches in EVMs and allegations by the Samajwadi Party that the police and administration were preventing people from casting vote.

Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held. READ MORE

In Odisha’s Padampur, over 29 per cent polling was recorded in the first four hours of voting. Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani said glitches in EVMs were reported in four booths following which the voting machines were replaced

The Samajwadi Party has accused the BJP of sabotaging by-elections in the Rampur and Khatauli Assembly and Mainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh even as voting was underway on these seats. The SP has alleged that its party workers were being thrown out of booths, electors were being prevented from voting to decrease the polling percentage and EVMs were malfunctioning in several areas.

The party alleged that in a polling booth in the Balpura village in Karhal, the BJP agents were preventing the Muslim voters from exercising their rights.

The outcomes of the bypolls will not have any impact on the central or the state governments as the BJP enjoys a comfortable majority at both levels. However, a win would provide a psychological advantage to parties ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

As the voting progressed, both the SP and BJP hurled allegations against each other. The SP, through its official Twitter handle, alleged use of police force and also charged that officials on election duty were preventing people from casting their votes.

It also posted a video alleging distribution of money by BJP agents at Bhogaon area of Mainpuri. The BJP also alleged on Twitter that in some booth in Mainpuri, “unscrupulous elements of SP” were preventing people from casting their votes and sought the EC’s intervention. A party delegation also met the UP CEO and handed him over a memorandum.

When asked about the SP’s allegation, BJP state president Bhupinder Singh Chaudhary said the SP will taste defeat on all the three seats. “The SP is making baseless allegations as it is going to taste defeat in all the three seats,” Chaudhary told reporters.