Heavy turnout in Silli, Gomia bypolls

Silli and Gomia Assembly constituencies saw good voter turnout during bye- elections on Monday. As per the tentative report from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the State Silli topped with over 75 per cent polling while around 63 per cent voters of Gomia exercised the franchise.

Barring some late evening thundershowers polling remained peaceful and smooth in both the segments going for midterm poll due to their respective legislators served with disqualification following conviction in criminal cases.

“As per the end of poll figures came to us Gomia had recorded 63.25 per cent while Silli reported 75.5 per cent of polling. Final report would come tomorrow and percentage may go up. No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere. Poll parties with EVMs are on their way to the strong rooms made at respective district headquarters as they faced some bad weather conditions,” said L Khiyangte, Chief Electoral Officer of Jharkhand. Silli falls into Ranchi and Gomia is a part of Bokaro district.   

Start of the polling was not that encouraging as only 18 per cent votes were polled in the first two hours of the bypoll to Silli seat while around 14 per cent votes were cast in Gomia. However, during late afternoon voters’ queues went spiral with equal participation of males and females.

Role of the Election Commission and respective district administration also remained notable since no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in both the constituencies. “Some minor glitches came at some of the EVMs at few places which were replaced by installing the spare machines with our poll officials. We also welcomed and felicitated those coming to the polling booths early, elderly persons and the divyangs,” said the official.

For the first time in the Assembly elections in the State the voters were given facility to see picture of the candidates into fray pasted on the EVM along with complete coverage through the voter’s verifiable paper audit trail providing paper printout of the votes cast which can be matched with the EVM figures later during the counting slated to take place on May 31.

The bypoll took place as JMM legislators Yogendra Mahto from Gomia and Amit Mahto from Silli were disqualified. Their party gave tickets to Babita Devi and Seema Mahto, the wives of both the leaders, respectively to take on some of the poll veterans in the State politics. AJSU is in direct fight with JMM at Silli with its chief Sudesh Mahto fighting the bye-election as joint NDA candidate. Whereas at Gomia a triangular contest is on the card with both the NDA allies-- BJP and AJSU-- fielding their candidates separately besides the sitting JMM.

As the polls are over all the rival camps claimed for victory. “We did very well despite the ruling BJP using all the tactics available to them. They misused Government machinery but people’s support was with us,” said JMM spokesperson Suprio Bhattacharya.

BJP MLA Anant Ojha, who was one of the in-charges made for the bypolls, claimed victory of the party candidate Madhav Lal Singh from Gomia. “The voters have voted for the cause of development in good numbers. BJP candidate from Gomia and NDA candidate from Silli would emerge victorious on Thursday,” he said. There are total 13 candidates in Gomia and 10 in Silli.