Milkipur, Erode East Bypolls Highlights: BJP locked in prestige battle with SP in Ayodhya’s Milkipur; Oppn boycotts poll in Tamil Nadu’s Erode

Voting for the bypoll for the Erode East Assembly constituency concluded here on Wednesday peacefully and the voter turnout is expected to cross at least 65 per cent, election authorities said.

People turned up enthusiastically at the polling stations to cast their votes in the bypoll to the Erode East segment and those who were in the queue at the closing time were issued tokens and allowed to vote, they said. The polling was held from 7 am to 6 pm and during afternoon the voting was sluggish.

The allegation of a woman voter that someone impersonated her and hence, she could not vote and the allegations and counter-allegations of the ruling DMK and Naam Tamizhar Katchi caught attention, and they briefly resorted to road roko, leading to anxious moments.

District Collector and District Election Officer, Raja Gopal Sunkara said, adding till 1 pm, 42.41 per cent of polling was recorded in 237 polling booths and official sources said the percentage crossed 50 per cent later.

Three EVMs were used as 46 candidates, including 44 independents, are in the fray and the contest appears to be only between the ruling DMK's VC Chandirakumar and Tamil nationalist party, Naam Tamizhar Katchi's (NTK) M K Seethalakshmi.

Opposition parties, including main opposition AIADMK have boycotted the polls. State police and personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed in adequate numbers. (PTI)

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav shared an audio clip, claiming it shows that presiding officers in the Milkipur bypoll are trying to meet a "target" of "fake voting" to help the ruling BJP.

Yadav made the allegations in a post on X and attached what he said was the audio clip of a "sting operation".

He said elections overseen by the presiding officers should be cancelled immediately and and should be suspended on the basis of "prima facie audio evidence".

The SP chief also called on the Election Commission and Supreme Court to take cognisance of such "enemies of democracy".

"This is a sting operation exposing the truth of presiding officers who are completing targets of fake voting for the ruling party. Elections at their booths should be cancelled immediately and they should be suspended on the basis of prima facie audio evidence and then dismissed after proper judicial action," Yadav said.

"More such videos and audios of election rigging and manipulation by the officers are coming out. When they lose their jobs and get defamed in the society, maybe then their integrity and conscience will wake up," he said. (PTI)

People turned up enthusiastically at the polling stations here on Wednesday to cast their votes in the bypoll to the Erode East Assembly constituency and the voting percentage crossed 64.02 per cent by 5 pm as voting concludes.

Nearly 65.25% per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm on Wednesday for the bypoll in the Milkipur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh as polling concluded.

People turned up enthusiastically at the polling stations here on Wednesday to cast their votes in the bypoll to the Erode East Assembly constituency and an election official said the voting percentage crossed 53 per cent by 3 pm.

Polling was peaceful and incident free, District Collector and District Election Officer, Raja Gopal Sunkara said, adding that till 3 pm, 53.63 per cent of polling was recorded in 237 polling booths.

Three EVMs were used as 46 candidates, including 44 independents, are in the fray and the contest appears to be only between the ruling DMK's VC Chandirakumar and Tamil nationalist party, Naam Tamizhar Katchi's M K Seethalakshmi.

Opposition parties, including the main opposition AIADMK, have boycotted the polls.

State police and personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed in adequate numbers.

Erode East segment has a total of 2,27,546 voters and nine booths have been declared sensitive and additional security personnel have been posted there.

Officials said polling was stopped for ten minutes at the Brahmana Periya Agraharam polling station due to a technical fault in an EVM and it was replaced with another machine. When a woman claimed she was not allowed to vote as another woman had already cast her vote, it briefly led to a flutter and she argued with officials before leaving the polling station.

Voting began at 7 am and it will end at 6 pm. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress legislator

Nearly 57.13% per cent voters exercised their franchise till 3 pm on Wednesday for the bypoll in Milkipur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm, officials said.

The Milkipur bypoll has turned into a prestige battle between the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party as the seat is part of the politically significant Ayodhya district.

Samajwadi Party leaders alleged that police are checking the identity cards of voters to "create fear" in them.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on X, "The Election Commission should immediately take cognisance of pictures related to the news that Ayodhya Police -- senior police officers included -- is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur."

Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly and Samajwadi Party leader Mata Prasad Pandey, speaking to reporters on Milkipur bypolls on Wednesday, alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not allowing people to cast their votes.

He told ANI: "The BJP government knows that it has lost the election. To turn the election in its favour, they are not allowing people to vote, threatening them and chasing away our polling agents from some polling booths, all this is against democracy..."

"At booth number 2, the polling staff is removing the burqa of Muslim women and identifying them with their identity cards. Through this, they are creating pressure... The police administration is working as BJP workers and the DM, SDM, SP, all are trying to win that seat by any means on behalf of the government...," he added. (ANI)

Nearly 30 per cent votes were cast in the first two hours of polling for the bypoll in Milkipur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm, officials said.

According to the Election Commission (EC), 29.86 per cent votes were cast till 11 am.

The Milkipur bypoll has turned into a prestige battle between the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party as the seat is part of the politically significant Ayodhya district.

While voting is underway at polling booths, Samajwadi Party leaders alleged that police are checking the identity cards of voters to "create fear" in them. (PTI)

The Ayodhya Police responded to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's allegation that the police is checking the ID cards of voters in the Milkipur.

Hitting back at Akhilesh, the Ayodhya Police posted on X, "The above photo is of the booth agent's identity card, the person seen in the photo is a booth agent of a candidate which has been verified by seeing his identity card. Please do not make misleading tweets."

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the police are checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur where the by-polls are underway.

Yadav posted on X, "The Election Commission should immediately take cognizance of the pictures related to this news that Ayodhya police is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur, in which senior police officers are also involved. This is a democratic crime of indirectly influencing voting by creating fear among voters. Such people should be removed immediately and punitive action should be taken."

Recording a slow day at the polls, Uttar Pradesh's Milkipur recorded a voter turnout of 13.34 percent till 9 am, in the first two hours of voting.

In Milkipur, the fate of candidates in the fray will be decided by the Scheduled Castes (SC)-reserved constituency's 3,70,829 voters but the main contest is expected to be between Samajwadi Party's Ajit Prasad and the BJP's Chandrabhanu Paswan.

Around 11 percent of voters cast their votes in first two hours of polling in the Erode east Assembly constituency bypoll on Wednesday, an official said.

The polling began at 7 am and by 9 pm 10.95 percent of voters exercised their franchise, said District Collector and District Election Officer Raja Gopal Sunkara, in a press note.

The DMK has fielded former MLA V C Chandrakumar while M K Seethalakshmi is the NTK's pick. Main Opposition AIADMK and the BJP have announced boycotting the by-poll, necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan last year.

Erode East segment has a total of 2,27,546 voters. Nine booths have been declared as sensitive and additional security posted there, officials said.

The voting in Erode East of Tamil Nadu and Milkipur of Uttar Pradesh commenced at 7 am today, with low voter turnout recorded till 9 am, due to unfavourable weather conditions.