Bypolls to four Assembly seats in three States of Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya ended peacefully with two seats in Tripura and one seat in Meghalaya witnessing a massive turnout of over 80 per cent. The Garoth Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh witnessed over 71 per cent polling. The poll results will be out on June 30.
The Garoth seat which falls in Mandsaur district will prove a litmus test for the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which is facing criticism over its Ministers being involved in the Vyapam scam involving irregularities in public services recruitment. The seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MlA Rajesh Yadav and the key contest in the Saturday’s election is between BJP’s Chander Singh Sisodia and Congress’ Subhash Sojatia.
In Tripura, bye-elections to two reserved seats ended peacefully with no reports of violence or untoward incident from the two constituencies Pratapgarh in West Tripura district and Surma in Dhalai district. A spokesperson of the State election department confirmed heavy polling with the mark crossing 80 per cent till reports last came in by 6 pm.
The Pratapgarh seat fell vacant on the death of CPI(M) veteran and former Minister Anil Sarkar while Surma sitting MlA Sudhir Das died recently. In Meghalaya too, voting crossed 80 per cent in the lone seat of Chokpot Assembly constituency in South Garo Hills district.
Four candidates are in the fray for the seat which fell vacant after the demise of Garo National Council leader Clifford Marak. His widow Kalpana Sangma is a front runner for the seat.