Voting for the bypoll for Madhupur constituency in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district on Saturday registered 71.60 percentage, which was about two notches lesser than the 73.77 percent polling registered during the 2019 assembly elections. However, the district administration hailed the turnout considering the brutal second wave of Covid-19 pandemic that has hit the country.
Voters in queque during the by- election at Madhupur in Deoghar on Saturday Picture by Shabbir Hussain
Of the 3.22 lakh electorates, female voters bypassed their male counterparts in terms of turnout at the polling booths. Female and male voter turnout remained at 73.71 and 70.07 percentage respectively, stated the district election officer and deputy commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri, during a press conference, which was organised after the conclusion of polling at 6 pm.
Since morning, there was immense enthusiasm across all the voting booths despite the pandemic, he said, adding that entire election process remained hassle free and no untoward incident was reported at any place. Voting began at 7 am and ended at 6pm.
“No untoward incident was reported at any of the 487 polling booths, and everything went as per the plan,” said the official adding that they had put in elaborate arrangements and had deputed enough officials at every polling booth to ensure necessary precaution was taken by the voters and polling agents.
A police man helping a disabled woman voter in a polling booth at Madhupur on Saturday Picture by Shabbir Hussain
The bypoll was poised as a bipolar fight between UPA and NDA. While the ruling UPA comprising JMM, Congress and RJD put up incumbent minister Hafizul Hassan as joint candidate on this seat, BJP has put up Ganga Narayan Singh, an AJSU-P turncoat as the NDA candidate.
The seat fell vacant following the demise of Hafizul’s father, a former minister in Soren cabinet in October last year. Madhupur is the third by-election for the incumbent regime since Soren government came to power in 2019. The results will be announced on May 2.
JMM’s general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharjee thanked people for greater turnout. “JMM is more than confident of winning the seat back,” he reiterated.
