UP Bypolls: Peaceful polling in Phulpur; over 44.34% voter turnout
Voting for the by-election for the Phulpur assembly constituency took place on Wednesday along with 8 other constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The polling was peaceful and no major untoward incidents were reported during the process, officials said.
A total of 12 candidates are in the poll fray including Deepak Patel of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mohd Mujtaba Siddiqui of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Jitendra Kumar Singh of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The counting is scheduled for November 23.
The Phulpur assembly seat was left vacant after sitting MLA, Praveen Patel of BJP, was elected as an MP during the Parliamentary Polls-2024.
A total of 4,07,977 voters were eligible to cast their votes during the bypoll. Voting started at a slow rate at 7 am owing to the morning chill, with only 8.83% voting reported by 9 am, but it climbed to 17.68% by 11 am and gradually picked up, reaching 36.58% by 3 pm. It touched 44.34% by 5 pm, which is around 16.96% less than the 2022 polls, amounting to only around 1.70 lakh voters out of over 4.07 lakh eligible voters.
“The polling took place peacefully. There was no untoward incident reported from anywhere,” said Pooja Mishra, deputy district election officer, Prayagraj.
Voting was held at a total of 435 polling booths in Phulpur this time, with webcasting being done for 228 booths.
During the polling, BJP candidate for the Phulpur bypolls, Deepak Patel, made a complaint to the police alleging fake voting at a polling centre in the Bahadurpur development block. Patel accused a sector magistrate of being involved in facilitating fake voting at the polling centre.
BJP candidate Patel, and MLC Surendra Chaudhary reached the Malawa Buzurg polling centre in Bahadurpur Block at 10 am in the morning. Patel asked the cops and his polling agents to match the faces of the women with the photograph on their identification documents before allowing them to vote.
Meanwhile, SP candidate Mujataba Siddiqui also alleged that police were threatening voters and pressuring them to stop voting at some polling booths.
Prayagraj police commissioner Tarun Gaba, during his round of the polling stations, pulled up the cops at a polling centre in Jhunsi after he spotted a voter carrying a mobile phone inside the polling centre. Meanwhile, some voters also alleged that they faced difficulties in casting their votes because their identification documents had become old and were in poor condition.
