Bumper voting in Meghalaya’s Sohiong, long queues of people seen exercising voting right

Bypolls held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Meghalaya witnessed brisk voting on Wednesday, with the northeastern state registering a polling percentage of more than 90.
The bypolls were conducted for two Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, one each in Meghalaya and Odisha and the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab.
Till 5 pm, a voter turnout of 50.27 per cent was recorded in Jalandhar, while the Suar and Chhanbey Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh registered a polling percentage of 41.78 and 39.51 respectively. The Jharsuguda Assembly segment in Odisha witnessed 68.12 per cent polling while the Sohiong Assembly seat in Meghalaya recorded a voter turnout of 91.56 per cent.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary due to a cardiac arrest during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in January. It witnessed a four-cornered electoral battle involving the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Prominent among those who exercised their franchise were AAP candidate Sushil Rinku, Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, MLA Pargat Singh and AAP MP Balbir Singh Seechewal.
Opposition party leaders accused the AAP of violating the Model Code of Conduct by deploying “outsiders” at several booths, a charge denied by the ruling party.
The Congress candidate, through her election agent, wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner, alleging that AAP leaders and workers came from outside the constituency for campaigning and were present in almost every village and ward.
“The ruling AAP is misusing the government machinery and no action is being taken by the returning officer and the assistant returning officers,” she alleged.
A total of 16,21,800 voters — 8,44,904 males, 7,76,855 females and 41 third-gender voters — were eligible to exercise their franchise in the Jalandhar bypoll.
Nineteen candidates, including four women, were in the fray. The AAP fielded former MLA Sushil Rinku, who quit the Congress, while the Congress kept its faith in Karamjit Kaur, the wife of Santokh Chaudhary.
The BJP fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh who quit the SAD to join the saffron party. Atwal is the son of former Punjab Assembly speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal.
The SAD fielded its two-time MLA from Banga, Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is a medical practitioner by profession. The SAD candidate was backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The seat is considered to be a stronghold of the Congress, which has remained undefeated here since 1999.
There was a direct contest between the ruling BJP-led coalition and opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Suar and Chhanbey Assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
According to officials, a total of 6.62 lakh voters (3.51 lakh males, 3.11 lakh females and 82 third-gender voters) were eligible to cast their votes in the two constituencies. A total of 14 candidates — six in Suar and eight in Chhanbey — were in the fray.
Amid the SP’s charges that police prevented people from casting their votes in some booths, the Suar seat recorded 41.78 per cent polling, while Chhanbey recorded a voting percentage of 39.51 till 5 pm.