The polling in the by-elections to Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat and Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh passed off peacefully.
Barring some stray cases, no untoward incident was reported from any of the three constituencies.
In Mainpuri, the voter turnout by 5 pm was close to 52 per cent while 54.50 per cent polling was reported in Khatauli and 31.22 per cent in Rampur Sadar during this time.
The Election Commission had made elaborate arrangements for the by-elections.
The polling began at 7 am and was held amid tight security arrangements.
A direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance was witnessed in the bypolls to Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.
The Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress did not contest the bypolls.
The BJP and SP have been accusing each other of disrupting the electoral process. The by-election to the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat took place due to the death of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, while the bypolls to Rampur Sadar and Khatauli assembly seats were necessitated due to SP MLA Mohammad Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini’s disqualification from House following their conviction in separate cases.
While Khan was disqualified after a court awarded him three years’ imprisonment in a 2019 hate speech case, Saini lost his membership of the assembly after his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.
The outcomes of the bypolls will not have any impact on the Central or the state governments as the BJP enjoys a comfortable majority at both levels. However, a win would provide a psychological advantage ahead of the 2024 general elections.
There are six candidates in the fray in Mainpuri, 14 Khatauli and 10 in Rampur Sadar, according to the Election Commission. In Mainpuri, Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder daughter-in-law and wife of SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav, is pitted against BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya.
The BJP candidate, who was once a close associate of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) chief and Akhilesh Yadav's uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, joined the saffron party ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls held earlier this year.
The BJP fielded Akash Saxena, son of former party MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena, in Rampur Sadar against senior SP leader Azam Khan's protégé Asim Raja. In Khatauli, there is a direct contest between Vikram Singh Saini's wife Rajkumari Saini and Madan Bhaiya of the RLD.
Meanwhile, Shivpal Yadav struck a conciliatory note and thanked the district administration of Mainpuri for the peaceful, and incident free polling.
Shivpal Yadav said he had never seen such a keenly contested election in his long years in public life. He said the party cadre worked exceptionally hard for ensuring the victory of Dimple Yadav. Shivpal said he was confident of victory for Dimple Yadav with a comfortable margin.