Security arrangements have been made for by-polls Lok Sabha seats

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for polling for by-elections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Around 65 companies of Central Para-Military Forces — 33 for Gorakhpur and 32 to Phulpur — have been deputed for the conduct of free and fair polls. Besides Central forces, over 11,000 state police personnel and officers have been deployed in Phulpur and 10,000 in Gorakhpur.

State Chief Electoral Officer, L Venkateshwar Lu said in Lucknow on Saturday that adequate security arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of by-polls in two the Lok Sabha seats. He said that the polling would commence from 7 am and end at 5 pm. Polling parties have started reaching their respective booths.  

Lu said that the Election Commission has made arrangements for web casting of polling process from 95 polling booths in the two constituencies identified as critical.

In both by-elections, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be equipped with VVPAT (voter verified paper audit trail) where voters could verify whether the vote has gone to the candidate whom he/she voted for. The Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System will be used to dispatch postal ballots to eligible service voters in the constituencies. 

As per Election Commission, 19.61 lakh voters in Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency are expected to exercise their franchise at 2,059 polling booths, while 19.49 lakh voters in Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency were expected to cast their votes at 2,141 polling booths.

There are total 32 candidates in the fray for the two by-polls which include three women candidates. There are 10 candidates in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates are contesting from Phulpur.

The by polls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats respectively, following their election to UP Legislative Council in September last year.

Hectic campaigning was done by the Congress and BJP while BSP backed the SP for the polls. On the last day of campaigning on Friday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed public meetings in Gorakhpur while Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav campaigned in Phulpur. The by-elections are expected to witness a triangular contest between the ruling BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress.

The  by elections will be  first major  test for Yogi  Adityanath, as he himself has been a five-time MP from the temple town of Gorakhpur. The BJP has a stronghold on the seat where it has won since 1989. Prior to Adityanath, the seat was thrice represented in Lok Sabha by his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath. 

However, the tragedy in Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College last year where 70 infants died due to lack of oxygen may have an impact.

On the other hand Phulpur, once the bastion of Congress and represented by country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru witnessed a saffron surge in 2014 Lok Sabha election, when KeshavPrasad Maurya won the seat.

The BJP has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against SP’s Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel respectively. Sureetha Kareem is the Congress candidate from Gorakhpur while the party has fielded Manish Mishra from Phulpur.