UP bypolls: After sluggish start 31.21% turnout recorded at 1 pm in 9 assembly seats

Lucknow: Voting for bypolls in nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh picked up pace after a sluggish start, with over 31 per cent voters turning up to exercise their franchise by 1 pm on Wednesday.

Voting started at 7 am in Katehari, Karhal, Mirapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki seats and will end at 5 pm.

According to the Election Commission's update at 1 am, the average voting across the seats stood at 31.21 per cent.

The EC update showed the following voter turnout: Ghaziabad (20.92 per cent), Katehari (24.28 per cent), Khair (28.80 per cent), Kundarki (41.01 per cent), Karhal (32.29 per cent), Majhawan (31.68 per cent), Meerapur (36.77 per cent), Phulpur (26.67 per cent), Sisamau (28.50 per cent).

The elderly, young and even physically-challenged people were seen at polling stations since morning.

"Apne dil ke hisaab se vote kiya hai (I've voted as per my wish)," a burqa-clad woman told reporters outside a polling booth in Karhal.

Another woman accompanying her said, "Karobar sahi se chale. Kaam-dhandhe nahi chal rahe, mehngai hai, naukri nahi hai jis wajah se pareshani hai. (Business is not running fine, there is inflation and unemployment because of which there are problems)." Standing in queue at a poll station in Phulpur, a middle-aged man, said he had issues of "development" on his mind, while another asserted "law and order" was a key issue in the state.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission, acting on complaints by Samajwadi Party, has ordered the suspension of police personnel for violating its guidelines on checking of voters and stopping them from casting votes in the bypolls.

Samajwadi Party claimed that in some places police personnel were checking the IDs of people and deterring them from voting.

The BJP has also sought the intervention of the EC for checking identity of burqa-wearing women voters, claiming their IDs did not match with their faces.

While eight seats fell vacant following the incumbent MLAs' election to the Lok Sabha, polling in Sisamau is being conducted due to Samajwadi Party lawmaker Irfan Solanki's disqualification from the assembly after his conviction in a criminal case.

This is the first electoral contest in the state after the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress is not contesting these bypolls and has lent support to the Samajwadi Party, its INDIA bloc ally. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on all nine seats solo.

According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), more than 34.35 lakh voters -- of whom 15.88 lakh are women -- are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Ninety candidates are in the fray for the bypolls. Ghaziabad has the most candidates in the fray with 14, followed by Khair and Sisamau with five each.

Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded candidates from Ghaziabad, Kundarki and Mirapur while the Chandrashekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) is contesting on all seats except Sisamau.

The results of the bypolls, however, will not have any impact on the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly.

At present, the BJP has 251 members in the House, followed by the Samajwadi Party's 105. BJP allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 MLAs, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) eight, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) six and the NISHAD party five.

The Congress and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have two MLAs each and the BSP has one. In the 2022 assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party won from Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki while the Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair seats were bagged by the BJP.

The Meerapur seat was won by the RLD, then an ally of the Samajwadi Party. It has since become a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.