Officials reported serpentine queues in most voting centres in the Firozabad parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh as well as the state’s 11 Assembly seats. The same was the case in West Bengal (10 Assembly seats), Kerala (3), Rajasthan, Assam and Himachal Pradesh (2 each) and Chhattisgarh (1).
The voting percentage ranged from 50 in Chhattisgarh to a high of 80 in Kerala. The exercise passed off peacefully barring minor incidents of violence in West Bengal, election officials said. It was the first popularity test after last month’ Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh that produced mixed results for the Congress.
Saturday's battle was politically most crucial in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, where the Left Front is on the defensive in the face of an aggressive Trinamool Congress and rising Maoist violence.
An estimated 53.5 per cent of the electorate voted in Firozabad, where Congress candidate and movie star Raj Babbar has taken on Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, making it a battle of prestige.
Two minor incidents of violence were reported from Uttar Pradesh where two persons, including a woman, were injured in a clash during polling at a booth in Jasrana area of Firozabad constituency, official sources said in Lucknow.
In Jaunpur, the cavalcade of BSP’s Rari Assembly seat candidate Rajdev Singh, father of BSP MP Dhananjay Singh, was allegedly attacked by unidentified persons during polling hours at Tikrara police station area, police said. The results of the byelections will be keenly watched in UP, where CM and BSP chief Mayawati has no friends. Nearly 50 per cent voted in the 11 UP seats of Powayan (SC), Lucknow West, Padrouna, Rari, Isauli, Jhansi, Kolasala, Hainsar Bazar, Lalitpur, Etawah and Bharthana. Apart from UP and Left-ruled Kerala and West Bengal, the Congress or BJP govern the other four states. Amid tight security, brisk voting was reported almost everywhere.
In West Bengal, the Maoists gunned down three activists of the CPM-controlled anti-terror peace committee near Jangalmahal on the polling day. Official reports said the three activists --- Monoranjan, Jayaram and Lakshmi Das( all in the age group of 30 to 40 ) had been picked up last night from their houses in the Binpore village and were subsequently killed. Their bodies were thrown on the road with their hands fastened with ropes.
The Maoists leader Koteshwar Rao (Kishenji) has claimed responsibility for the killings, saying they were in retaliation to the murders of innocent villagers at Lalgarh and Jangalmahal by the joint action force.
The 10 segments which went to the polls today were: Kalchini (ST), Rajganj (SC), Sujapur, Goalpokhar, Bongaon, Contai South, Egra, Serampore, Alipore and Belgachia East.
“The elections were free and fair with around 65% polling,” the chief electoral officer Debasish Sen said. The counting would take place on November 10.
Of the ten seats, three belonged to the Left parties, while the remaining are the TMC and the Congress citadels. The Marxists
