Repoll at one booth peaceful in Dholpur

at booth 163 in the Dholpur assembly bypoll was peaceful on Tuesday. Repolling was needed as the presiding officer had not deleted mock drill votes from the Electronic Voting Machine on April 9.

About 71.75% polling was recorded till on Tuesday. Polling booth 163 has 924 voters, including 503 male and 421 female. Re-polling was conducted on the directions of the Election Commission.

Returning officer, Manish Foujdar, said polling was cancelled after the presiding officer forgot to delete mock drill votes from the EVM. Polling parties often test EVMs through a mock drill and some data remained in machine before polling.

There are 1,91,857 voters in Dholpur and 1,47,992 voters had turned up to cast their votes on April 9. The Election Commission had recorded 77.12% polling. On April 9, polling across 231 booths began at 7am with a lukewarm response from voters. In first two hours, only 15% votes were polled, but polling picked up later in the day.

Counting will be held on April 13. The main contest is between the Congress candidate, Banwari Lal Sharma, and BJP candidate Shobha Rani Kushwah, wife of convicted BSP MLA BL Kushwah. The bypoll for Dholpur assembly seat was necessitated after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Banwari Lal Kushavah was disqualified after he was convicted in a murder case last year.