New Delhi: Moderate turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling across five assembly constituencies across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala, where bypolls are underway Thursday.
Polling commenced at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm.
While the death of sitting MLAs necessitated the bypoll in one seat of Gujarat and in West Bengal and Punjab, the resignation of two legislators led to the poll in Kerala and in one seat of Gujarat.
In West Bengal, a voter turnout of 30.64 per cent was recorded till 11 am in the Kaliganj assembly seat.
Tension flared up at a booth where the Congress alleged that its polling agent was forcibly removed by workers of the Trinamool Congress. However, the ruling party denied the charge.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of Trinamool Congress MLA Nasiruddin Ahamed in February. His daughter, Alifa Ahamed, is contesting the seat as the TMC nominee.
The BJP has fielded Ashis Ghosh as its candidate, while Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh is in the fray with the support of the CPI(M).
Kerala’s Nilambur Assembly constituency saw a steady turnout of 30.15 per cent after the first four hours of polling.
People came out in good numbers at the 263 polling booths across the constituency, which has over 2.32 lakh voters.
Among the 10, the key contenders are ruling LDF pick M Swaraj, Aryadan Shoukath (Congress-led UDF), Trinamool Congress state convener and independent candidate P V Anvar and Mohan George of the BJP-led NDA.
The UDF candidate expressed confidence about winning by a huge margin.
LDF’s Swaraj was also confident of securing a win in the bypoll.
Anvar, whose resignation as MLA from Nilambur necessitated the byelection, told reporters about the developments carried out in the constituency when he was representing it.
He also claimed that neither of the three frontsUDF, LDF and NDA discussed local issues like wild animal attacks during their campaign.
He was also confident that he would get a good share of the UDF and LDF votes.
Anvar, presently the state convener of the Trinamool Congress, resigned as MLA of the constituency following his severing of ties with the CPI(M)-led LDF over certain allegations by him against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his close aides.
The voting commenced in the morning after a mock polling was carried out to check if the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were working.
In Gujarat, the Visavadar and Kadi assembly constituencies recorded a turnout of 28.15 per cent and 23.85 per cent, respectively, in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls
The Visavadar seat in Junagadh district recorded a voter turnout of 28.15 per cent by 11 am, while Kadi in Mehsana district registered 23.85 per cent polling.
The state government has declared a public holiday Thursday in both constituencies for voting.
The BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have fielded their candidates in the two seats.
The Visavadar seat was lying vacant since December 2023, after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.
The Kadi seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, fell vacant February 4 following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.
In the Visavadar seat, BJP candidate Kirit Patel and Congress nominee Nitin Ranpariya cast their votes in the early hours.
The AAP has fielded its former Gujarat president, Gopal Itali, from Visavadar. He is not registered as a voter in the constituency.
Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007. The party leaders are this time hopeful of overcoming the 18-year jinx.
In the last assembly election in 2022, AAP’s Bhupendra Bhayani defeated BJP’s Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat and former MLA, by 7,063 votes.
The BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda from Kadi, while the Congress has given ticket to Ramesh Chavda, a former MLA.
Chavda won the seat in 2012, but lost it to BJP’s Karsanbhai Solanki in 2017.
Like Visavadar, the Kadi seat will also witness a three-way fight, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP fielding Jagdish Chavda.
In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the BJP has 161 legislators, Congress 12 and AAP four. While one seat is with the Samajwadi Party, two are with independents.
Punjab saw a voter turnout of 21.51 percent till 11 am in the polling for the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll.
The Ludhiana West Assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora reached a polling station along with his family members to exercise his franchise. Before casting votes, Arora paid obeisance at a gurdwara, a temple and the Dargah Pir in Phillaur.
Speaking to reporters, Arora appealed to the people to come out in large numbers to cast their votes.
“Please come out to vote and have maximum voting today,” he said.
Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta and SAD’s Parupkar Singh Ghuman also cast their votes.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to voters to cast their votes in the bypoll.
“My appeal to the voters of Ludhiana West is that you must exercise your right to vote. You must fulfil your duty for the development and progress of your area. Do not consider today a holiday, definitely go and cast your vote,” Mann said in a post on X in Punjabi.
The ruling AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha member Arora for the bypoll. Arora (61) is a Ludhiana-based industrialist and is also known for his social welfare work.He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust.
The Congress has placed its bet on former minister and Punjab Congress working president Ashu (51). Ashu had been MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gogi by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Assembly polls.
The BJP candidate is a member of the core committee of Punjab BJP. He was earlier the party’s state general secretary.
The Ludhiana West bypoll is seen as a litmus test for Mann and the ruling party’s national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this seat.
The bypoll results will be declared June 23.
PTI
