Voter turnout drops in UP By-elections

Azamgarh, Jun 25: Azamgarh recorded a voter turnout of 49.43 percent and Rampur 41.39 percent in the bypolls to the Lok Sabha constituencies, sources in the office of UP’s Chief Electoral Officer said on Friday.

 

 

 

Rampur, which fell vacant following the resignation of senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, had witnessed 63.19 percent polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Azamgarh, which was earlier represented by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, saw a voter turnout of 57.56 percent in the last Lok Sabha elections.

 

 

 

The polling in the bastions of the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) was held on Thursday. “The polling percentage in Azamgarh was approximately 49.43 percent while in Rampur, it was approximately 41.39 percent," the sources said. Over 35 lakh people were eligible to vote in the bypolls in these two constituencies to decide the fate of 19 candidates. Azam Khan on Thursday had alleged that the UP Police “wreaked havoc" on the eve of the Lok Sabha byelections in Azamgarh and Rampur. He claimed, “stick-wielding police personnel terrorized and humiliated voters and stopped them from going to the polling booths on Thursday." “I am a criminal, I accept… so my city has also been presumed to be the same. They can do whatever they want with the city and its people, we have to endure. If I want to stay, I have to endure," Khan had said. Rampur’s Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Shukla rejected the allegations on Thursday. “We have taken cognizance of the allegations leveled by him. I and the district magistrate Ravendra Kumar Mander are inspecting every polling station. No woman or any other voter in the entire constituency was stopped by police," he said. In a tweet in Hindi on Friday, Azam’s son Abdullah Azam cited newspaper reports, and said, “If the Election Commission does not take action even after these comments of the newspapers, then (one should) understand that democracy is on the verge of being over. These photographs and newspaper comments are telling everything clearly."

 

Also Read: Dismal turnout in Sangrur By-Poll 

 

The Samajwadi Party had also alleged irregularities in both constituencies. “Police are harassing SP workers at the behest of the ruling party in Tanda and Daryal areas of Swar assembly seat in Rampur. The Election Commission should take note. Action should be taken against the guilty policemen. Ensure fair voting," the party said. It attached a letter written to the poll panel with this complaint. The party alleged that people were prevented from casting votes at a booth in Tanda and the polling was stopped. It also claimed that its agents were driven out of several polling booths in Azamgarh “as part of a conspiracy at the behest of the BJP"