Voting for bypolls in 54 Assembly constituencies across 10 states ended on Tuesday, 3 November, including 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh – the highest number of Assembly seats where the by-elections were being held.
The Election Commission, in a press conference held after the polling, announced the voting percentages for the states. The exact percentage of turnout, however, will be declared later.
- Chhattisgarh: 71.99%
- Gujarat: 57.98%
- Haryana: 68%
- Jharkhand: 62.51%
- Karnataka: 51.3%
- Madhya Pradesh: 66.37%
- Nagaland: 83.69%
- Odisha: 68.08%
- Telangana: 81.44%
- Uttar Pradesh: 51.57%
Violence in MP’s Morena, Boycott in UP’s Firozabad
Reports of violence emerged from the Morena constituency in Madhya Pradesh.
Anurag Sujaniya, SP Morena, according to ANI, said: “We got reports of violence at a few places away from polling booths. These incidents haven't affected polling. We're probing videos of firing and have arrested few people in one such firing incident.”
Speaking to the press earlier in the day, former MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath said that the voters will now give a chance to the Congress to work for the state.
“People of Madhya Pradesh know that Shivraj Singh Chouhan has just lied in the last 6 months and has done nothing for the development of the state. Voters will now give a chance to Congress to work for the state”.Kamal Nath to ANI
Residents of UP’s Firozabad have, however, decided to boycott the assembly by-election due to alleged lack of development in the area, according to ANI.
“Jab tak road nahi, tab tak vote nahi (Until there are no roads, there will be no votes). We have decided to boycott elections this time as no development work has taken place here,” a local told ANI.
A total of 88 candidates were contesting in seven seats in UP, with the maximum number (18) of them contesting from Bulandshahr. Of the seven, six were held by the BJP in 2017.
COVID-19 Positive Patient Votes in Karnataka
A COVID-19 patient cast his vote at a polling booth in Benhaluru’s RR Nagar, earlier in the day.
He was facilitated with an ambulance and the booth was fully sanitised after he voted.
MP Bypolls to Decide Future of Shivraj Govt
Crucially, the Madhya Pradesh bypoll results will decide whether the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government will stay in power. After sitting Congress MLAs submitted resignations – leading to the fall of Kamal Nath-led government – 25 of the 28 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh fell vacant.
Three other seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs passed away.
Bypolls For 1 Bihar Seat, 2 Manipur Seats Pending
Apart from MP, eight Assembly seats were contested in Gujarat, seven in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Odisha, Nagaland, Karnataka, and Jharkhand, while Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Haryana are polling in one seat each.
Bypoll for one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar and two Assembly seats in Manipur will be held on 7 November.
The results for all the bypolls will be declared along with the Bihar Assembly elections, on 10 November.
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