A slew of bypoll results in West Bengal and Bihar will be announced today. Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Amar Kumar Paswan on Saturday widened his lead over his nearest rival Baby Kumari of the BJP to 21,049 in the bypoll to Bihar's Bochahan assembly constituency. Paswan secured 46,307 votes, while Kumari got 25,258 after the 14th round of counting. Vikassheel Insaan Party's Geeta Kumari was in the third position with 15,757 votes.
Polling for West Bengal's by-elections to Asansol Lok Sabha seat and for the prestigious Ballygunge assembly constituency in south Kolkata ended Tuesday evening at 6:30pm with relatively low voter turnout. The elections went off peacefully barring minor minor incidents of violence and saw around 52.5 per cent voter turnout till 5pm.
The industrial town of Asansol Lok Sabha seat saw 64.03 per cent polling, while the Ballygunge Assembly constituency witnessed an even lower 41.10 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm, an official said. These figures are however expected to go up as polling went on for another one-and-a-half hour. Officials said they would release the final voter turnout percentages tomorrow after compiling data from various booths.
In contrast, the Asansol Lok Sabha seat witnessed a turnout of around 76.62 per cent in 2019 general elections, whereas the Ballygunge assembly saw a 61 per cent voter turnout in last year's assembly polls. While the Trinamool Congress blamed humid weather and the usual trend of lower voting percentages in by-elections, the BJP claimed there was `voter intimidation'.
"The voting was quite brisk in the early hours but slowed down later, may be due to humid weather and perhaps because it is a by-election. But we are confident of winning both Ballygunge and Asansol seats," TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.
The BJP, however, claimed that the TMC has unleashed a reign of terror in both the seats. "TMC has unleashed a reign of terror in both the seats. The voters were not allowed to vote freely and fairly," BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh alleged.
On Tuesday morning, stones were hurled at the vehicle of BJP's candidate for Asansol, Agnimitra Paul, leading to tension in a few localities of the industrial town.
Stones were thrown when the candidate's personal security personnel baton-charged a group of TMC supporters who gheraoed Paul's vehicle alleging that she tried to enter a polling booth along with her security guards. Television grabs also seemed to show that her guards had tried to enter the booth.
-Inputs from PTI
