Bypolls Highlights: 53 percent votes cast till 5 pm in Kurhani assembly seat

Voting is underway in the by-election to six assembly constituencies in five states and the Mainpuri parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh. Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are the assembly seats where the bypolls are being held.

In Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the polling began at 7 am, while in Rajasthan it started at 8 am.

In Uttar Pradesh, a direct contest between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance is on the cards in bypolls to the Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.

The by-election to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat is taking place due to the death of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, while the bypolls in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated after SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified following their conviction in separate cases.

In Mainpuri, Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder daughter-in-law and SP president Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav is pitted against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya.

Nearly 76 percent of 2.57 lakh voters on Monday exercised their franchise till 5 pm in the by-poll to Odisha's Padampur assembly constituency, an Election Commission official said. The voting, which began at 7 am, continued beyond the scheduled close at 4 pm as several people were in queue in 89 of the 319 polling stations, he said. The boundary gates of all the booths, however, were closed at 4 pm, the official said.

A total of 53 percent of 3.11 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm in the by-election to Kurhani assembly seat in Bihar, officials said. Polling began at 7 am across 320 booths in the constituency, he said. Tight security arrangements are in place across all the booths, which are manned by central paramilitary forces besides the local police, and the casting of votes will continue till 6 pm.

# UP bypolls: BJP, SP accuse each other of distributing money, stopping public from voting

Bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh saw moderate voting till 1 pm, even as the two main contenders Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP accused each other of disrupting the electoral process. The SP, through its official Twitter account, alleged the use of police force and also said officials on election duty were preventing people from casting their votes. It also posted a video accusing the BJP agents of distributing money in Mainpuri's Bhogaon area.

On the other hand, the BJP too alleged on Twitter that in some booths, "unscrupulous elements of the SP" were preventing people from casting their votes and sought the Election Commission's intervention.

# Uttar Pradesh: 31.64 percent voter turnout recorded till 1 pm, in the bypoll to the Mainpuri Parliamentary constituency.

# Voter turnout till 1 PM:

Kurhani (Bihar) - 37 percent

Padampur (Odisha) - 46.96 percent

Sardashahar (Rajasthan) - 36.68 percent

Rampur (UP) - 19.01 percent

Khatauli (UP) - 33.20 percent

Bhanupratappur (Chhattisgarh) - 50.83 percent

# Bihar by-poll sees 105-yr-old exercising franchise

Determined to exercise his franchise, 105-year-old Deepa Manjhi reached his designated polling booth in Bihar's Kurhani assembly segment, where voting is underway for a by-election on Monday. "I have grown very old. It may well be the last opportunity for me to cast my vote,” said Manjhi, whose rheumy eyes, shuffling steps and torso bent at a right angle, balanced against a thick bamboo pole he held in his right hand, gave little clue of his determination.

# Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat: In 1957 elections, a candidate got zero votes

The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which has been the Samajwadi Party's stronghold for over two-and-half decades, interestingly also bears testimony to a candidate securing zero votes. The candidate -- Shanker Lal, who contested an independent candidate in the 1957 general elections -- did not even get his own vote as it was deemed invalid.

# Mainpuri LS bypoll: "I have complete faith that SP will win the Mainpuri bypolls. People have realised that BJP is fighting polls unfairly so they will get the reply once the poll results are out," says Dimple Yadav, SP candidate.

# Uttar Pradesh: 18.72 percent voter turnout recorded till 11 am, in the bypoll to the Mainpuri Parliamentary constituency.

# Voter turnout till 11 am:

Kurhani (Bihar) - 24 percent

Padampur (Odisha) - 29.73 percent,

Sardashahar (Rajasthan) - 19.87 percent

Rampur (UP) - 11.30 percent

Khatauli (UP) - 20.70 percent

Bhanupratappur (Chhattisgarh) - 31.27 percent

# Uttar Pradesh: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav casts his vote at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai, Etawah, for Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll.

# Uttar Pradesh: 7.08% voter turnout recorded till 9 am in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat bypoll.

# Voter turnout till 9 am:

Kurhani (Bihar) - 11 percent

Padampur (Odisha) - 8.50 percent

Sardashahar (Rajasthan) - 5.27 percent

Rampur (UP) - 3.97 percent

Khatauli (UP) - 6.90 percent

Bhanupratappur (Chhattisgarh) - 9.89 percent

# SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav cast his vote for the Mainpuri bypoll today.

Mainpuri Lok Sabha by-polls: SP patron Late Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Abhay Ram Yadav casts his vote at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai, Etawah. "SP is going to win by a huge margin. There is no competition with any other political party," says Abhay Ram Yadav.

# Chhattisgarh: Congress candidate for Bhanupratappur constituency, Savitri Mandavi casts her vote for bypoll to the assembly seat. "Atmosphere is in favour of Congress because our government has set standards of development. Looking at those works, people are voting for us," she says.

# The BJP has fielded Akash Saxena, who is the son of former party MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena, in Rampur Sadar against senior SP leader Azam Khan's protege Asim Raja.

In Khatauli, the fight is between Vikram Singh Saini's wife Rajkumari Saini and Madan Bhaiya from the RLD.

# The Sardarshahar seat in Rajasthan was held by Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma (77) who passed away on October 9 after a prolonged illness. The Congress has fielded the late Sharma's son Anil Kumar while former MLA Ashok Kumar is the BJP candidate.

# The by-election to the Padampur seat in Odisha was necessitated by the death of BJD legislator Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha. The BJD has nominated the deceased MLA's daughter, Barsha, who is set to take on BJP’s Pradip Purohit, a former MLA, and Congress candidate and three-time legislator Satya Bhusan Sahu, among others.

# The bypoll to Bhanupratappur seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, in the Maoist-hit Kanker was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA and deputy speaker of the Assembly Manoj Singh Mandavi last month. The Congress has fielded Savitri Mandavi, the wife of the deceased MLA, while the BJP nominee is former MLA Brahmanand Netam.

# In the Kurhani assembly segment in Bihar, a total of 13 candidates are in the fray. The JD(U) is contesting the seat where the by-election has been necessitated by the disqualification of RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani.

The counting of votes for the single parliamentary and six assembly seats will be held on December 8.