Assembly By-election Live Updates: Voting Underway In 7 Constituencies Across 6 States

An average voter turnout of 45.60 percent was recorded till 3 pm Thursday in the by-elections to seven assembly constituencies underway in six states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The Munugode assembly bypoll recorded the highest turnout till 3 pm of 59.92 per cent, followed by Adampur with 55.12 per cent, Dhamnagar 52.13 per cent, Gola Gokarannath 44.05 per cent, Mokama 42.44 per cent, Gopalganj 42.65 per cent and the Andheri (East) seat with 22.85 per cent.
 

According to PTI, a voter turnout of 16.89 per cent was recorded in the Andheri East Assembly by-election in Mumbai till 1 PM on Thursday. There are a total of seven candidates in the fray. Barring Rutuja Latke, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate, all the others are independents.

Latke is expected to win comfortably in the by-election after the BJP withdrew its nominee last month. Notably, this is the first assembly election in Maharashtra after the Uddhav-helmed Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed in June this year following a revolt by Eknath Shinde.

While officials said voting was going on peacefully, the Samajwadi Party (SP) alleged that some polling centres have been captured by workers of the ruling BJP. "Polling centres in Lalahapur, Madanpur and Lakshmanjati in Gola Gokarannath assembly have been captured by BJP workers. SP voters, booth in-charges and agents have been driven away. The Election Commission should take cognisance of this and ensure fair polls," the SP tweeted in Hindi.

However, District Magistrate Mahendra Bahadur Singh ruled out the allegations, saying he personally visited the three polling centres and found no such thing. "In Madanpur, a Samajwadi Party agent was found and he accepted that there was nothing wrong. Also, webcasting of these centres is on," he added, PTI reported.
 

Despite the strict security for the day, there were reports of clashes between BJD and BJP workers in polling booths 169 and 170 at Rameswarpur in the constituency while voting was on and two persons were injured.

Till 01:00 PM, a total of 38.75 per cent of voters exercised their franchise in the Dhamnagar assembly by-poll Thursday, an Election Commission official said, PTI reported.

Bihar: A voter turnout of 31.90 per cent was recorded till 1 pm in Bihar's Mokama and Gopalganj assembly constituencies. While Mokama recorded a 34.26 per cent voter turnout, Gopalganj saw a 29.90 per cent turnout till 1 pm.

Telangana: Over 25 per cent of polling was reported till 11 AM in the by-poll to the Munugode Assembly constituency.

Uttar Pradesh: A voter turnout of over 33 per cent has been recorded in the first six hours of polling in the Gola Gokarannath assembly constituency.

Haryana: A poll percentage of 22.51 was recorded in the first four hours after polling began in the Adampur Assembly segment.

Odisha: A total of 22.36 per cent of votes were cast till 11 am in the by-poll being held in the Dhamnagar assembly seat.

Over 2.41 lakh voters would give their verdict in the bypoll to the Munugode assembly constituency in Telangana-- an election that is expected to influence the future course of state politics in the run-up to next year's legislative assembly polls.

As many as 47 candidates are in the fray, official sources said. The three big faces of the main political parties who will be contending this election are - BJP's Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, TRS leader Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress' Palvai Sravanthi Reddy.

Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena's Rutuja Latke is expected to comfortably win the Andheri East Assembly constituency in Mumbai after the BJP withdrew from the contest which is the first after the recent split in the Shiv Sena following a rebellion by Eknath Shinde, who replaced Thackeray as the Maharashtra chief minister. The NCP and Congress have supported her candidature.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of Rutuja Latke's husband and Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year.

The Adampur by-poll necessitated after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as MLA from the seat and switched sides from the Congress to the BJP in August, is seeing BJP, Congress, INLD and the AAP battle to grab the assembly seat. The saffron party has fielded Bhavya Bishnoi-- Kuldeep Bishnoi's son from the Adampur seat. To ensure BJP's victory, Chief Minister Khattar interacted with the youth of Adampur virtually, during which he sought their support for his party candidate Bhavya Bishnoi.

AAP's chief Arvind Kejriwal and CM Bhagwant Mann had also campaigned in Adampur for their party. On the other hand, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state Congress president Udai Bhan led the party's campaign.

For the by-polls in Bihar, the main contest is between the BJP and the RJD. The BJP has gone all-out to retain the constituency, while the ruling Mahagathbandhan's largest constituent RJD has left no stone unturned to wrest the Bihar assembly seat from the BJP's camp.

The polling is being held in Mokama and Gopalganj assembly constituencies of Bihar, Andheri (East) of Maharashtra, Adampur of Haryana, Munugode of Telangana, Gola Gokarannath of Uttar Pradesh, and Dhamnagar of Odisha.