New Delhi (TIP)- Voting for three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats — across six states — was held on Thursday, June 23,  with significantly low turnouts ranging from 76.72% in Agartala assembly constituency in Tripura to 43.75% in Rajender Nagar assembly seat in New Delhi. The votes will be counted on June 26 and the results will help the poll watchdog fill up vacancies in the electoral college for the President election slated for July 18. The three Lok Sabha seats that went to polls were Azamgarh and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, and Sangrur in Punjab. The seven assembly seats were Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, Mandar in Jharkhand, Atmakur in Andhra Pradesh and Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma and Jabarajnagar in Tripura.

On the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after Bhagwant Mann became the chief minister, the voting percentage was 36.40% till 5 pm as compared to 72.40 % in the 2019 elections.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has nominated its district in-charge, Gurmail Singh, the Congress former Dhuri MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) former Barnala MLA, Kewal Dhillon. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann fielded himself for the seat and Kamaldeep Kaur, sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s assassination case, is the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate. In Azamgarh, vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, about 48.58% of people came out to vote till 6 pm as against the final turnout of 57.56 % in the 2019 election. The SP has fielded Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin and former Badaun MP, Dharmendra Yadav, while the BJP has chosen actor-singer Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua, and the Bahujan Samaj Party has nominated Shah Alam aka Guddu Jamali.

In Rampur, the former constituency of Azam Khan, the voting percentage was 41% till 6 pm, which was a sharp drop compared to the 63.19% turnout in the 2019 election. Khan’s loyalist Asim Raza is up against the BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi. Congress is not contesting. The four seats in Tripura fell vacant after three BJP MLAs joined the Congress and after the death of a senior CPI (M) legislator. Chief minister Manik Saha, a Rajya Sabha MP, is contesting from the Town Bordowali seat against Congress’s Asish Kumar Saham, where 69.54% of voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm, as compared to the final figure of 85.81% in the previous election. Another interesting contest is in the Agartala constituency, where former BJP MLA Sudip Roy Barman is contesting on a Congress ticket against BJP’s state unit vice president Dr Ashok Sinha and CPM’s Krishna Majumder. Here, 76.72% of polling took place till 5 pm as compared to 90.79 % in the last assembly poll in 2018. Polling was also held in two other seats of Jubarajnagar and Surma, with voting percentages of 80.41% and 80% till 5 pm, compared to a final turnout of 90.93% and 90.19% recorded in 2018 respectively. In Andhra Pradesh’s Atmakur, where the election was necessitated after the death of MLA and state industries minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy, the YSR Congress has nominated his brother, Vikram Reddy. The main opposition party, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), is not contesting and the BJP has fielded G Bharat Kumar Yadav. The voting percentage was 61.70% till 5 pm. In Jharkhand’s Mandar, where polling was necessitated after former minister Bandhu Tirkey was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, the Congress has fielded Tirkey’s daughter Shilpi Neha Trikey while the BJP has fielded Gangotri Kujur. Here, the voting percentage was 60.5% till 5 pm as compared to 67.58% in 2019. On Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar seat, which was vacated after AAP’s Raghav Chadha was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, 43.75% voters turnout against 58.27 % last time. The AAP has fielded Durgesh Pathak against BJP former councillor Rajesh Bhatia and the Congress’s Prem Lata.          Source: HT