UP bypolls: Voter turnout 49.3 per cent, just 33 per cent in Ghaziabad

Lucknow: About 49.3 per cent voters cast their votes in bypolls to nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday with Ghaziabad logging just 33 per cent.

The state had recorded an overall turnout of 61.03 per cent in the 2022 assembly polls.

Voting started at 7 am in Katehari, Karhal, Mirapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki seats and continued till 5 pm.

According to the Election Commission, the approximate voter turnout till 5 pm was 49.3 per cent.

The voter turnout in Ghaziabad was 33.3 per cent, Katehari (56.9 per cent), Khair (46.3 per cent), Kundarki (57.7 per cent), Karhal (54.1 per cent), Majhawan (50.41 per cent), Meerapur (57.1 per cent), Phulpur (43.43 per cent) and Shisamau (49.1 per cent).

The elderly, young and even physically-challenged people were seen at the polling stations since morning amid heavy security deployment in all constituencies.

"Apne dil ke hisaab se vote kiya hai (I've voted according to what my heart wanted)," a burqa-clad woman told reporters outside a polling booth in Karhal.

A woman accompanying her said, "Kaam-dhandhe nahi chal rahe, mehngai hai, naukri nahi hai jis wajah se pareshani hai. (Businesses are not running fine. There is inflation and unemployment.... which are bothering people." Standing in queue at a poll station in Phulpur, a middle-aged man said development was the main issue for him, while another asserted that "law and order" was a key issue in the state.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission, acting on complaints by the Samajwadi Party, has ordered the suspension of police personnel for violating its guidelines on checking of voters and stopping them from casting votes in the bypolls.

At least four cops on poll duty were suspended in Kanpur and Muzaffarnagar, according to officials. In Moradabad, an unknown number of personnel on traffic duty were shunted, they said.

The Samajwadi Party claimed that in some places the police personnel were checking the IDs of people and deterring them from voting. The BJP has also sought the intervention of the EC for checking identity of burqa-wearing women voters, claiming their IDs did not match with their faces.

While eight seats fell vacant following the incumbent MLAs' election to the Lok Sabha, polling in Sisamau is being conducted due to Samajwadi Party lawmaker Irfan Solanki's disqualification from the assembly after his conviction in a criminal case.

This is the first electoral contest in the state after the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress is not contesting these bypolls and has lent support to the Samajwadi Party, its INDIA bloc ally. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on all nine seats solo.

According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), more than 34.35 lakh voters -- of whom 15.88 lakh are women -- were eligible to exercise their franchise.

Ninety candidates are in the fray for the bypolls. Ghaziabad has the most candidates in the fray with 14, followed by Khair and Sisamau with five each.

Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded candidates from Ghaziabad, Kundarki and Mirapur while Chandrashekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) is contesting on all seats except Sisamau.

The results of the bypolls, however, will not have any impact on the health of the BJP-led state government.

At present, the BJP has 251 members in the 403-member House followed by the Samajwadi Party's 105. Among BJP allies, Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 MLAs, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) eight, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) six and the NISHAD party five.

The Congress and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have two MLAs each and the BSP has one. In the 2022 assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party won from Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki while the Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair seats were bagged by the BJP.

The Meerapur seat was won by the RLD, then an ally of the Samajwadi Party. It has since become a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.