Voting underway in 6 assembly seats of five states

NEW DELHI: The voting turnout for by-elections in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur has been recorded lowest among the six assembly seats of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where the polling is currently underway.

Assembly seats in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar, and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh are in for a by-election race.

Earlier, Azam Khan had alleged that the voters were not allowed to cast their votes.

"They don't even allow the casting of votes in Rampur. The beating up of people started yesterday. SSP there is the one who was removed from Firozabad on my complaint during polls. This SSP was there the last time too and even now. There is nobody to listen but the public is supreme," the SP leader alleged.

In Uttar Pradesh, Rampur witnessed 3.97 pc and Khatauli recorded 6.90 pc voter turnout till 9 am.

After Azam Khan was disqualified from the UP Assembly following his conviction in a hate speech case, the Rampur Assembly seat is going to by-polls today, Khatauli has gone to the by polls election today due to the disqualification of BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini in a different case. Till 9 am, 11 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Bihar's Kurhani, while 8.50 pc people have voted in Odisha's Padampur.

In Kurhani, the disqualification of RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani prompted the polls, whereas in Padampur, the demise of sitting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha on October 3 necessitated the polls.

Notably, Rajasthan's Sardarshahar and Chhattisgarh's Bhanupratappur have reported 5.27 pc and 9.89 pc voter turnouts here.

While the death of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma after a prolonged illness necessitated the polls in Sardarshahar, the Bhanupratappur seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MLA Manoj Singh Mandavi.