Less than 50 per cent turnout in UP byelection

Lucknow/Patna: Voting for bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar took place on Sunday with a drop of around 11 per cent in the turnout in Uttar Pradesh’s prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats.

In Gorakhpur, a seat vacated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the turnout was 43 per cent as against 54.64 per cent in 2014. In Phulpur, the polling percentage was 37 per cent as against 50.20 in 2014.

Despite a high voltage campaign, the low voter turnout has left political parties worried and poll pundits wondering.

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

Phulpur, once the seat of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, was won for the first time in 2014 by the BJP when deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya was declared elected.

Results for all the seats will be declared on March 14.

After casting his vote in Gorakhpur, Mr Adityana-th said that the BJP was getting widespread support from people.

“The agenda of good governance and development will win. Bypolls will be a positive referendum on my one year of governance,” the chief minister said.

The byelections in Uttar Pradesh are significant since they mark the new alliance of the SP and the BSP which could change the complexion of politics in the state if it proves a success.

Attacking the alliance, the chief minister said, “These parties are indulging in negative politics, politics of bargaining and politics of opportunism. The state has suffered the negative consequences of SP and BSP governments.”

The BJP had fielded Kaushlendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP’s Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel, respectively. The Congress had nominated Suritha Kareem for Gorakhpur and Manish Misra for Phulpur.

The highest turnout on Sunday’ bypolls was recorded in Bihar’s Araria Lok Sabha seat at 57 per cent. The turnout in Jahanabad and Bhabhua Assembly constituencies was 50 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively.

A police case was filed against BJP state president Nityanand Rai for allegedly making a provocative speech that “voting for RJD candidate will turn the state into a safe haven for the ISIS”.

The case was registered against senior BJP leader for giving the statement while campaigning for his candidate in Narpatganj of Araria Assembly segment on Friday.

Taking a strong exception of the comments RJD leader Shivanand Tiwary told reporters in Patna, “The BJP is giving such statement in desperation as it knows that the NDA is going to lose. There is anger among people against Nitish Kumar-led government here because they feel that the mandate they gave in 2015 was violated.”

The BJP had fielded Pradeep Singh from Araria constituency who had lost to veteran RJD leader Mohammad Taslimuddin in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The RJD is trying to retain its Jehanabad seat which fell vacant after the death of its MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav. The party has fielded his son Sujay Yadav against JD(U) candidate Abhiram Sharma.

From the Bhabhua Assembly seat, the BJP had given a ticket to Rinky Pandey after the death of her husband Anand Bhushan Pandey. Congress candidate Shambhu Patel  contested against her from the Aassembly segment.