Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest voter turnout of 78% in the Assembly bypolls held in 13 constituencies across seven states on Wednesday. The lowest turnout of 47% was seen in Badrinath, Uttarakhand.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from Uttarakhand and West Bengal. In Manglaur, Uttarakhand, four people were injured in a clash between workers of different political parties at a polling booth. Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Yashpal Arya, and Congress MP Imran Masood, condemned the violence.
The Assembly bypolls were held in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh. Of the 13 seats that went to polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Trinamool Congress had each held two, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had held one each. Independents held the remaining three seats.
The bypolls are being keenly watched, especially in Himachal Pradesh, where polling took place in the three seats of Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh, vacated by Independent MLAs who joined the BJP. These constituencies recorded voter turnouts of 63.89%, 65.87%, and 75.22% respectively.
In West Bengal, violence was reported from the Bagdah and Ranaghat Dakshin constituencies, which saw a turnout of 65.15% and 65.37% respectively. BJP candidates Manoj Kumar Biswas and Binay Kumar Biswas, from Ranaghat-Dakshin and Badgah respectively, claimed that they were not allowed to visit some polling booths. The Trinamool Congress denied the allegations and dubbed them as “baseless”. The other two West Bengal seats of Raiganj and Maniktala recorded voter turnouts of 67.12% and 51.39% respectively.
The results of the bypolls will be declared on July 13.
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