Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 13: Barring a violent incident in West Bengal in which a Trinamool Congress workers was shot dead in Bhatpara under the Naihati state Assembly constituency, the polling in 43 state Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand in the first phase of elections in the state and by-polls in 31 Assembly constituencies in different states and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala passed off peacefully on Wednesday.
A voter turnout of 64.86% was recorded in the 43 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand, officials said. Lohardaga district topped the list with 73.21% polling while Hazaribag district recorded the lowest at 59.13, officials said.
Former Chief Minister and BJP candidate Champai Soren is contesting from Seraikella. Jamshedpur East will see a faceoff between Congress’ Ajoy Kumar, who once served as the SP of Jamshedpur, and Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of former Jharkhand Chief Minister and current Odisha Governor Raghubar Das.
Polling for the Wayanad Lok Sabha byelection from where the Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her maiden electoral contest, passed off peacefully on Wednesday. According to preliminary reports, 64.72% of voters cast their ballot in the constituency. In the previous election, the voting percentage was 72.92%. As many as 9,52,543 voters, including 4,97,788 women, of the total 14,71,742 voters cast their votes.
Good polling was reported at the landslides-affected region in Chooral Mala and tribes-populated areas in the district. The district administration operated 15 schedules, four KSRTC buses free of charge, for the landslides survivors residing in rented apartments across the district.
Long queues, especially of women from plantations, were seen from early morning at most polling stations. Tribespeople also arrived in large numbers to exercise their franchise. Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Backward Classes O.R. Kelu cast his vote at Kattikulam Government High School. T. Siddique, MLA, cast his vote at Government Lower Primary school here.
Unfazed by threats and boycott calls from Maoists, people in Left Wing Extremism-affected areas in Jharkhand turned out in impressive numbers to vote on Wednesday even as the overall polling percentage in the state surpassed the 63.9 per cent recorded in the 2019 assembly elections, according to the Election Commission.
“Polling was marked by a festive mood and enthusiastic participation across all districts, with large tribal population, including areas affected by Left Wing Extremism,” the poll authority said on Wednesday evening.
In West Bengal, the TMC worker Ashok Shaw, a booth president of the ruling party in ward no 12 of Bhatpara municipality, was shot dead by unidentified miscreants outside a local tea shop. The killing of local TMC worker sparked political accusations of voter intimidation during the ongoing bypolls, prompting the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office to seek a report on the incident.
The Vav assembly seat in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district recorded a provisional voter turnout of 68.01% in the by-election, the poll authorities said. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said in a statement that polling went off peacefully without any untoward incident. “Webcasting was done from all 321 polling stations of the constituency to ensure transparent elections, with one ballot unit, a control unit, and three VVPATs replaced after they malfunctioned,” he said.
The 31 Assembly constituencies where bypolls were held on Wednesday are spread across 10 States, including seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two in Madhya Pradesh, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Meghalaya. In two seats in Sikkim, candidates from the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) won uncontested.