Anand (Gujarat), Apr 23 (PTI) A voter turnout of 37.14 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Thursday in the byelection in the Umreth assembly constituency in Gujarat’s Anand district, poll authorities said.
Polling commenced at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm across 306 polling stations set up in the constituency, officials said.
“A voter turnout of 37.14 per cent has been recorded between 7 am and 1 pm for the byelection to Umreth assembly constituency,” election authorities said in a statement, adding that voting is going on smoothly and that no unwarranted incident has been reported so far.
The bypoll, necessitated following the death of sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar last month, is seeing a direct contest between BJP candidate Harshad Govindbhai Parmar and Congress nominee Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan. Both candidates cast their votes in the morning and expressed confidence of victory.
Three Independents and a candidate from a lesser-known party are also in the fray.
A total of 2,45,623 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the byelection, to be conducted with the help of 1,500 personnel, including 19 nodal officers and 22 micro observers, a release from the Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer said.
Counting of votes will take place on May 4.
The BJP has fielded Harshad Parmar, son of four-term MLA late Govind Parmar, who died on March 6 at the age of 72 after a brief illness.
This is Harshad Parmar’s first major election.
The Opposition Congress has nominated Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan, a 62-year-old seasoned local leader who is also contesting his first assembly election.
Chauhan served as the president of the Umreth taluka panchayat for three consecutive terms between 2000 and 2015. He is currently the party’s coordinator for the central zone in the state.
In the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections, Govind Parmar retained the Umreth seat for the BJP by defeating NCP candidate Jayant Patel, also known as Boski, by a margin of over 25,000 votes. PTI COR PJT PD GK NR
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