Low turnout in Phulpur and Gorakhpur bypolls

Lucknow : Forty three per cent voters cast their mandate in the Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency on Sunday while Phulpur recorded an even lesser 37.39 per cent turnout as the crucial bypolls to the two Lok Sabha seats were held peacefully, the state election office said.

Polling began at 7 AM and passed off peacefully at 5 pm, the state election office said.

“Gorakhpur recorded a turnout of 43 per cent and Phulpur 37.39 per cent,” it added.

There were complaints of EVM malfunctioning at a few booths, but the machines were promptly replaced without affecting the polling, an election official said here.

The reason behind the lower than expected turnout in the high-stakes polls in the country’s electorally most significant state was said to be a lack of enthusiasm among voters who are now looking forward to the general elections which are barely a year away.

Tight security arrangements were in place to ensure free and fair polling. Apart from the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and homeguard jawans, 65 companies of central paramilitary forces were deployed to ensure peaceful bypolls.

The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats after getting elected to the state legislative council.

After casting his vote in Gorakhpur, Adityanath said the BJP was getting widespread support.

“The people know that development is the only panacea,” he told reporters there.

Attacking the BSP and the SP, he said, “These parties are indulging in negative politics, politics of bargaining and politics of opportunism. The state has suffered the negative consequences because of this. To ensure that in future such a situation does not arise, efforts have to be made to shun politics of casteism and dynastic politics, and the focus should be on development and administration.”

Asked about the SP and BSP entering an electoral understanding, Adityanath said it would have no effect on the outcome of the polls.

“If the SP, BSP and Congress had fought together, then results would have been much better for us,” he said.

Termed by Adityanath as a “rehearsal” for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the bye-polls are witnessing a triangular contest involving the ruling BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress.

The saffron party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP’s Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, respectively. The Congress has nominated Sureetha Kareem for Gorakhpur and Manish Mishra for Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.

Ten candidates are in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates are contesting from Phulpur.

Gorakhpur is significant for the BJP as it is the bastion of the chief minister, who represented the seat Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Adityanath, the seat was represented in parliament by his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath thrice.

57% polling in Bihar’s Araria

PATNA: Fifty-seven per cent polling was recorded in the by-election to the Araria Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar on Sunday, a senior poll official said. The by-poll in Araria is being viewed as a test for the ruling JD(U)-BJP combine as well as the opposition RJD-Congress alliance, ahead of the big battle in the general elections due next year.

In the Bhabua and Jehanabad Assembly constituencies, where by-polls were also held, the voter turnout was 54.03 per cent and 50.06 per cent respectively after polling ended at 5 pm, Bihar Chief Electoral Officer Ajay V Nayak said.

The ruling JD(U)-BJP combine and the opposition RJD-Congress alliance were locked in a battle on the three seats, reports PTI. This is the first electoral battle in the state since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who also heads the JD(U), walked out of the alliance with the RJD and the Congress and joined the BJP-led NDA last year.

The polling was by and large peaceful, the election official added.

The by-election to the Araria seat was necessitated by the death of sitting RJD lawmaker Mohd Taslimuddin. The contest is mainly between RJD’s Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin’s son, and BJP’s Pradip Singh, who had won the seat in 2009 and finished runner-up in 2014.

In Jehanabad, the RJD hopes to retain the Assembly seat that fell vacant after the death of Mundrika Yadav. The party gave ticket to Yadav’s son Kumar Krishna Mohan.

On the other hand, the BJP is hopeful of retaining the Bhabhua Assembly seat riding on a sympathy wave for Anand Bhushan Pandey whose death at the age of 48 necessitated the bypoll. The saffron party fielded Pandey’s wife Rinky Rani.

Counting of votes will take place on March 14.

Meanwhile, an FIR has been lodged against Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai for violating the model code of conduct by allegedly making provocative speech during campaigning for Araria Lok Sabha bypolls, an official said on Sunday.

RJD vice-president Shivanand Tiwary had also takeng strong exception to Rai’s statement terming it as

outrageous .