Lucknow, May 10 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh’s Suar and Chhanbey assembly constituencies recorded sub-50 voting percentage in bypolls held on Wednesday, a noticeable decline from the assembly polls last year, prompting main Opposition Samajwadi Party to allege irregularities and demand the Election Commission take note and initiate action.
According to officials figures, while Suar constituency recorded 44.95 percent polling, Chhanbey registered 44.15 percent, compared to 68.8 per cent and 52 percent in the 2022 assembly elections, respectively.
Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party alleged police were preventing people from casting votes in some booths in Suar, a claim officials denied and said free and fair polling was ensured on both seats, and the entire exercise passed off peacefully.
The party said in a release that on the instructions of Akhilesh Yadav a letter has been sent to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), New Delhi, asking him to take cognisance of the complaints of :rigging and intimidation” of voters and “booth capturing” by the ruling party and take immediate action.
The party’s former Rajya Sabha MP Arvind Kumar Singh, an outgoing member of the Legislative Council, has sent all the complaints related to the byelection to the CEC expecting immediate action on them, the release said.
In a tweet from its official handle, the SP charged, “In Khempur, Rasoolpur, Faridpur, Samodia in the Suar seat of Rampur, police are preventing voters from voting. Voters are returned from polling booths. Election Commission should take cognisance and ensure fair elections”.
In a separate tweet, it alleged that Cabinet minister Ashish Patel (of Apna Dal-S) was calling SP workers and threatening them.
Officials, however, denied the charges. The Suar seat in Rampur district fell vacant after SP leader Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam Khan was disqualified as MLA after a Moradabad court in February sentenced him to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case.
The Chhanbey seat in Mirzapur district fell vacant following the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.
In the bypolls, there is a direct contest between the ruling coalition and the opposition Samajwadi Party.
In Suar seat, the coalition led by the BJP, which has already wrested the Rampur Lok Sabha seat and Rampur Sadar assembly seats, is making a concerted efforts to wipe out Azam Khan’s political imprint in the area consolidated over the past four decades.
According to Mirzapur district magistrate Divya Mittal, polling was slow in Chhanbey in the morning but it gained pace as the day progressed.
Senior officials including the Commissioner Muthukumarasamy B and DIG R P Singh took rounds of the constituency to ensure peaceful polling. The DM also visited the polling booths as the polling continued.
Selfie points made at the model polling booth, including the one in Lalganj Babu Upraudh Inter College proved to be an added attraction for the voters, especially the younger lot, who queued up to click their pictures after exercising their franchise.
For the aged and the disabled voters, help came from different sources including the polling staff who assisted them in reaching the polling table. A disabled person of over 75 years caught an eye at the Bapu Upraudh Inter College booth as he went out to vote with his grandchildren.
A total of 774 polling booths were set up by the Election Commission at 492 polling centres in the two constituencies, while there were 6.62 lakh eligible voters.
A total of 14 candidates are in the fray with six in Suar and eight in Chhanbey. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party has kept away from the polls, while the Congress has fielded its candidate only in Chhanbey.
In the 2022 UP Assembly election, Abdullah Azam Khan defeated Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s Haidar Ali Khan on the Suar seat by a margin of over 61,000 votes. This time, the Samajwadi Party has fielded Anuradha Chauhan from the seat and Apna Dal (Sonelal) has named Shafeek Ahmed Ansari.
The Chhanbey seat in Mirzapur fell vacant following the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February. The party has fielded Kol’s wife Rinki Kol while Kirti Kol is contesting as the Samajwadi Party candidate. Eight candidates are in the fray for this seat.
The counting of votes will take place on May 13. In the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the ruling BJP has 255 MLAs, and its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the NISHAD Party have 11 and six legislators, respectively.
The SP has 109 MLAs while its ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal has nine. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party has six MLAs, the Congress and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have two each and the Bahujan Samaj Party has one member in the assembly. PTI ABN SAB CORR SNS Suar TIR TIR
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