Polling concludes in 51 assembly, 2 Lok Sabha constituencies

TILL 6 PM, ARUNACHAL PRADESH’S KHONSA WEST ASSEMBLY SEGMENT RECORDED HIGHEST TURNOUT AT 90.74%; WHILE UTTAR PRADESH RECORDED LOWEST AT 45.04%

NEWDELHI: Polling for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha seats across 16 states and one Union Territory concluded on Monday. Results for all the bypolls, which were held alongside the elections to the state legislative assemblies of Maharashtra and Haryana, will be announced on October 24.

The highest turnout was recorded in Arunachal Pradesh’s Khonsa West Assembly segment, at 90.74%.The constituency is witnessing a straight contest between two independent candidates — Chakat Aboh and Azet Hamtok.

Uttar Pradesh, which saw a mini version of the assembly elections with bypolls to 11 constituencies, recorded the lowest turnout of 45.04%till 6 pm.gangoh in Saharanpur recorded the highest polling percentage of 57.8, while the Lucknow Cantt seat recorded the lowest at 27.1 per cent.

In Bihar, where polling was underway for the bye-elections to five Assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha seat recorded 49.50% turnout till 6 pm. The highest turnout was recorded in Kishanganj with 59.18% polling till 6 pm, poll officials said. Besides Kishanganj, the bye-election are taking place in Simti Bakhtiarpur, Daraunda, Nathnagar and Belhar Assembly segments. The lone Lok Sabha seat in t he bypolls i s Samastipur recorded 44.64% turnout.

An average of 74.14% voting was recorded in the bypolls to four Assembly seats in Assam till 6 pm.jania Assembly seat recorded the highest voting per cent at 78.21%, followed by Rangapara (77.5% ), Ratabari (74.37%) and Sonari (66.4%), it said.

The voter turnout in the rainhit five assembly by-elections in Kerala touched 64.99%, as the Congress and the BJP put up a brave face with the CPI-M looking confident of a good show. Th e five Assembly constituencies going to bypolls are — Vatiyoorkavu, Aroor, Konni, Ernakulam and Manjeswaram.

In Punjab, polling was underway for the bypolls to four assembly seats—phagwara (reserve), Jalalabad, Dakha and Mukerian — with up to 60.59% voting recorded till 6 pm.

Jhabua, the sole seat for bypoll is being held in Madhya Pradesh, recorded 56.62% polling. Jhabua Collector Prabal Sipaha told PTI that polling was progressing peacefully, adding a VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) unit was changed at one booth due to some technical problem.

In Sikkim, an average of 69.55% voting was recorded in the by-polls to the three Assembly seats, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer said.

Besides, till 6 pm, the turnout for by-elections to three seats in Rajasthan was 63.62%; 50.35% for six seats in Gujarat, 68.87% and 67.97% for two seats in Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, respectively; while it stood at 72.00% in Odisha, 79.83% in Meghalaya, 82.23% in Telangana, 66.95% in Puducherry and 74.39% Chhattisgarh.