By-Poll Elections 2024: EC Suspends 7 Cops In UP; Check Voter Turnouts Till 1 PM

- Voting for by-elections is underway for 15 constituencies across UP, Punjab, Kerala, and Uttarakhand.

- In UP, Kundarki recorded the highest voter turnout with 41.01%, and in Punjab, the turnout was highest in Gidderbaha with 50.9% till 1 pm.

- Uttarakhand's Kedarnath recorded 34.40% and Kerala's Palakkad recorded a turnout of 40.16% as per the latest data.

- Reports of clashes surfaced in UP and Punjab. In UP, the ECI suspended 7 police officers for stopping voters of certain communities from casting votes.

Assembly by-polls are set to take place in 15 seats spread across Uttar Pradesh (9 seats), Punjab (4 seats), Kerala (1 seat), and Uttarakhand (1 seat) on November 20.

In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki.

In Punjab, elections will be held in four assembly seats including Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala.

Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.

In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad.

This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2022 assembly polls, Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki were won by the SP, while the BJP won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair. The Meerapur seat was won by BJP ally RLD.

In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats including Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala in Punjab.

The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Of the four assembly segments, Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal were earlier held by the Congress, and the Barnala seat by the AAP.

Forty-five candidates, including three women, are in the fray. A total of 6.96 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Polling is also being held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.

The by-poll in Palakkad was necessitated after the Congress MLA of the constituency, Shafi Parambil, got elected to the Lok Sabha from the Vadakara constituency.

The Kedarnath seat fell vacant after the death of sitting BJP MLA Shailarani Rawat in July. Both the candidates, BJP's Asha Nautiyal and Manoj Rawat of Congress, have represented the Kedarnath assembly seat in the past.

Nautiyal won it in 2002 and 2007 as a BJP candidate. Shaila Rani Rawat won it in 2012 on a Congress ticket. She contested the seat as a BJP nominee in 2017 and lost to the Manoj Rawat. However, she wrested the seat from Rawat in 2022.

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Out of nine seats in UP, Karhal in Mainpuri district holds the key as it is considered the stronghold of the Samajwadi Party. While in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is hoping to expand its hold.

On November 13, 31 assembly seats across 10 states which included seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two in Madhya Pradesh, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Meghalaya.

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Punjab

Among the key contestants in the fray are former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Kewal Singh Dhillon, Sohan Singh Thandal and Ravikaran Singh Kahlon (BJP), Amrita Warring and Jatinder Kaur (Congress), and Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Ishank Kumar Chabbewal (AAP).

Kerala

Among the 10 contesting candidates, the key contenders are Rahul Mamkootathil (Congress-led UDF), C. Krishnakumar (BJP-led NDA), and P. Sarin (CPI(M)-led LDF).

ALSO READ | Wayanad Bypolls: Who Is Navya Haridas, BJP’s Candidate Against Priyanka Gandhi?

Uttarakhand

There are six candidates in the fray, with BJP's Asha Nautiyal and Congress's Manoj Rawat seen to be locked in a straight contest.

BJP candidate for Assembly by-polls in Kedarnath, Asha Nautiyal casts her vote at a polling station in Rudraprayag.

Uttar Pradesh

Katehari- 11.48%

Ghaziabad- 5.36%

Sishamau- 5.73%

Majhawan- 10.55%

Meerapur- 13.01%

Khair- 9.03%

Phulpur- 8.83%

Kundarki- 13,59%

Karhal- 9.67%

Punjab

Gidderbaha- 15.11%

Dera Baba Nanak- 9.70%

Barnala- 6.80%

Chabbewal- 4.15%

Uttarakhand

Kedarnath- 4.30%

Kerala

Palakkad- 12.63%

Follow Jharkhand election updates here

Police on Wednesday dispersed crowd in Uttar Pradesh's Meerapur Assembly constituency of Muzaffarnagar district where voting for bypolls is underway.

Voting is being held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad.

Uttar Pradesh

Katehari- 24.28%

Ghaziabad- 12.87%

Sishamau- 15.91%

Majhawan- 20.41%

Meerapur- 26.18%

Khair- 19.18%

Phulpur- 17.68%

Kundarki- 28.54%

Karhal- 20.71%

Punjab

Gidderbaha- 32.85%

Dera Baba Nanak- 25.50%

Barnala- 16.30%

Chabbewal- 12.71%

Uttarakhand

Kedarnath- 17.69%

Kerala

Palakkad- 24.95%

UP Chief Election Officer Navdeep Rinva said that 20.5% voting has taken place in 9 assemblies of Uttar Pradesh with the highest turnout recorded in Kundarki assembly with 28.5%. Gaziabad recorded the lowest turnout with only 13%. Voting is going on smoothly everywhere, he assured.

Two groups attacked each other with stones in Kakroli village during voting for the Meerapur assembly bypoll following a confrontation.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Abhishek Singh said that the police used "mild force" to disperse the crowd and bring the situation under control. "The situation was brought under control and voting continues peacefully," he said.

According to a PTI report, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Mohammad Arshad claimed the voter turnout in the Kakroli area was low because police were not letting people leave their homes. "Police are harassing voters and not allowing them to step out of their homes. They are behaving like people's enemies during this festival of democracy."This is not a people's election, this is the government's election," he said.

According to Election Commission data, 26.18% polling was recorded in Meerapur till 11 am.

Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate for Meerapur constituency Sumbul Rana alleged that police were "harassing" voters in the name of checking their identity cards to prevent them from casting their votes.

However, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Mithlesh Pal justified ID checking by the police claiming that to prevent bogus voting.

She claimed that people outside the Meerapur constituency were being called in for "bogus voting" and that it was being done by "women in a burqa". "These people have been accommodated in madrassas and schools," PTI quoted Pal.

Punjab by-elections recorded a turnout of over 36 percent voters till 1 pm. By-polls are ongoing for four assembly seats in the northern state where clashes were reported between AAP and Congress workers in Dera Baba Nanak segment.

At Dera Pathana village in Dera Baba Nanak segment, a clash broke out between the AAP and Congress supporters. Congress candidate Jatinder Kaur's husband, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, alleged that some "outsiders" at the behest of the AAP thrashed his party worker in the village and also accused the police of not taking action. However, AAP nominee Gurdeep Singh Randhawa rejected these allegations as baseless.

Uttar Pradesh

Katehari- 36.54%

Ghaziabad- 20.92%

Sishamau- 28.50%

Majhawan- 31.68%

Meerapur- 36.77%

Khair- 28.80%

Phulpur- 26.67%

Kundarki- 41.01%

Karhal- 32.29%

Punjab

Gidderbaha- 50.09%

Dera Baba Nanak- 40.40%

Barnala- 28.10%

Chabbewal- 27.95%

Uttarakhand

Kedarnath- 34.40%

Kerala

Palakkad- 40.16%

The ECI suspended seven police officers in Uttar Pradesh after complaints surfaced against them for allegedly stopping voters from casting their votes.

"No eligible voter should be prevented from voting. Any kind of biased attitude during voting will not be tolerated. On receiving a complaint, there will be an immediate investigation. If anyone is found guilty, strict action will be taken," the ECI stated.

Out of seven, two police officers are from Kanpur district, two from Muzaffarnagar district and three are from Moradabad.

This action came in response to Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav's complaints regarding police officers unlawfully checking voter cards and Aadhaar IDs. Yadav had urged the poll body to take action based on complaints on its official social media accounts about voters being prevented from casting votes.