Sharp dip in Rampur turnout; BJP, SP trade charges; EC says all fair

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.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav accused the police and district administration of preventing people from casting votes. “What briefing has been done to the police? They have been asked to prevent people from voting in Mainpuri…Rampur,” Yadav told reporters in Mainpuri where he and his wife Dimple Yadav, who is contesting the election, cast their votes.

A delegation of SP leaders also submitted a memorandum to the UP Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that the administration “slowed down the polling by creating snags in EVMs”. The party alleged that voters were lathicharged by police, and Muslim voters in particular were not allowed to cast votes.

On the other hand, BJP also submitted a memorandum to the CEO, accusing the SP of “spreading anarchy and influencing voting”.

UP CEO Ajay Kumar Shukla said: “As of now, no anomalies have been found. The polling was free and fair,” the CEO said.

Padampur (Odisha): 80%

A record 80.5% polling was registered in Padampur as voting ended peacefully. The constituency had witnessed 79.05% polling in 2019 polls. The main contest is among Barsha Singh Bariha (BJD), Pradip Purohit (BJP), and Satya Bhusan Sahu (Congress).

Sardarshahar (Rajasthan): 69.9%

For the Sardarshahar Assembly bypoll in Rajasthan, 69.9 per cent voting was recorded on Monday, said officials. The election to the seat was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma. Congress has fielded Sharma’s son Anil as its candidate, who is pitted against former MLA Ashok Kumar Pincha of the BJP, and Lalchand Moond of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).

Kurhani (Bihar): 58%

Nearly 58 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Monday in the bypoll to Kurhani Assembly segment of Bihar, where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and the BJP have locked horns for the first time since their nasty break-up four months ago. Chief Electoral Officer H R Srinivas said the turnout was significantly lower than the 64.19 per cent recorded in the 2020 Assembly elections.

Bhanupratappur (Chhattisgarh): 64.8%

A voter turnout of 64.86 per cent was recorded in Bhanupratappur seat, an official said. The figure is provisional as reports from some polling booths were yet to be received, he said. Seven candidates contested the bypoll in the constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, though it was largely seen as a direct contest between Savitri Mandavi of the Congress and Brahmanand Netam of the BJP.

(With inputs from Deep Mukherjee in Jaipur, Sujit Kumar Bisoyi in Bhubaneswar, and PTI)