Uttarakhand: 38% polling in Bageshwar bypoll till 1 pm

Dehradun: Over 38 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 1 pm in the Bageshwar Assembly by-election in Uttarakhand which began at 7 am on Tuesday.

Voting is slated to go on till 5 pm. There are approximately 1.2 lakh voters in the constituency.

People began queuing up outside the polling booths from 6 am and by 1 pm 38.08 per cent polling was recorded, Bageshwar District Magistrate Anuradha Paul told PTI.

Five candidates are in the fray. The BJP has fielded Parvati Das while the Congress has pitted Basant Kumar against her.

Das is the wife of Chandan Ram Das whose death in April this year necessitated the bypoll. He had won from the seat four times since 2007.

The bypoll is important as its verdict will reflect the mood of voters in Uttarakhand ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP won all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

The bypoll result is also being touted as a progress report of the Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government, which has completed over a year of its second term after registering a massive win in the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections.