KANPUR: Voting for bypoll in Ghatampur assembly seat began on Tuesday morning. Nearly, 14.76 % turnout was recorded till 11am.
Polling began at 7am and will end at 6pm, a senior district official said, adding, all necessary measures are in place to maintain social distancing norms to prevent the spread of Covid-19 during voting.
Altogether 10 candidates are in fray on the reserved seat, which collectively have 3.19 lakh voters, he said.
"A total number of 481 polling booths have been set up across the assembly segment," the official added.
Nearly, 10 corona patients have cast their votes through postal ballot.
Ghatampur assembly which had been in the kitty of either Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or Samajwadi Party (SP) for past two decades, was won by BJP's Kamal Rani Varun in 2017 assembly polls.
The bypoll was necessitated after the death of state minister Kamal Rani Varun (62). She had been undergoing treatment at SGPGI, Lucknow. Varun had tested positive for Covid-19 on 18 July. She died on August 2 due to complications brought on by the disease.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded a first-timer, but a grass-root worker Upendra Paswan. Samajwadi Party, however, is banking upon -Indrajeet Kori while BSP is trying it's luck on Kuldeep Sankhwar and Congress on yet another first-timer Kripashankar Sankhwar.