Polling for the by-elections to three Assembly seats in the state passed off peacefully with over 46 percent voters exercising their franchise. The by-election was held in Deoband (Saharanpur), Muzaffarnagar and Bikapur (Daizabad) seats. The voters’ turnout was 50 percent, 44 percent and 45 percent respectively.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of UP said that of the 10.24 lakh electorate in the three seats, only 4.74 lakh cast their votes. In 2012 Assembly polls, Deoband had recorded 67 percent, Muzaffarnagar 56 percent and Bikapur 60 percent. The CEO said in one of the constituencies, polling was held up for some time due to snag in three EVMs and voting resumed after they were replaced. He said that complaints were received from one constituency about malpractices but they turned to be fake following enquiry by district administration.
The by-election in Muzaffarnagar was necessitated by the death of SP MlA and former minister, Chitranjan Swroop. The BJP had aggressively campaigned here in a bid to wrest the seat from the SP. Congress and RlD are also in the fray while the BSP did not fielded its candidate. Kapildev Agarwal is the BJP candidate, Gaurav Swroop from Samajwadi party and Mithilesh pal from the RlD.
Death of Mitresen Yadav, SP MlA caused the by-election in Bikapur (Faizabad). SP had fielded Anandsen Yadav, Ram Krishna Tewari from the BJP and Munna Singh chauhan from RlD. MIM of Hyderabad is also contesting from this seat. This is the first election of the MIM in UP. By-election in Deoband is being held due to the death of minister and SP MlA, Rajendra Singh Rana. While the SP has fielded his widow, Meena Rana, BJP’s Rampal Pundir and Mavia Ali of the Congress will challenged her.