Ghaziabad: By-poll for two councillor seats see low turnout, counting on Dec 19

The two seats fell vacant on the demise of sitting councillors -- Urmila Chauhan of the BJP from ward 19, and Anand Gautam, an independent, from ward 21 -- necessitating a by-poll

The by-poll for two councillor seats, wards 19 and 21, of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation ended on Tuesday evening and recorded a low turnout of 30.6% and 26.93%, respectively, said district election officials, adding that counting for the two seats will take place on December 19.

According to municipal figures, ward 19 has 13,232 voters and 4,049 of them voted on Tuesday. On the other hand, ward 21 has 13,084 voters and 3,524 of them voted. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The corporation has 100 wards and the local body polls in Ghaziabad were held in May 2023. Two seats fell vacant on the demise of sitting councillors -- Urmila Chauhan of the BJP from ward 19 and Anand Gautam, an independent, from ward 21 -- necessitating a by-poll. On Tuesday, by-poll for one councillor seat each in Meerut and Shahjahanpur was also held.

“The polling for the two wards ended on Tuesday evening and the turnout stood at 30.6% for ward 19 and 26.93% for ward 21. The ward 19 seat is reserved for SC (women) while the ward 21 seat is reserved for SC category. We were expecting a low turnout considering that it is a municipal by-poll, but even so, voters did come out to vote,” said Sudhir Tyagi, returning officer for the bypoll.

The ward 19 comprises localities of Patel Nagar and Mukund Nagar in corporation’s city zone while ward 21 falls under Vasundhara zone and comprises the locality of Bhovapur.

According to municipal figures, ward 19 has 13,232 voters and 4,049 of them voted on Tuesday. On the other hand, ward 21 has 13,084 voters and 3,524 of them voted.

“The counting for the two wards will take place on December 19,” the returning officer said.

Officials said four candidates, including Ranjita Kalyani from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rekha Makwana from the Congress, are contesting the ward 19 seat.

On the other hand, only three candidates, including Binnu Ram from the BJP and Om Prakash from the Congress, are contesting the ward 21 seat.

Tuesday’s bypoll was the second election in the district in less than a month.

Earlier on November 23, BJP candidate Sanjeev Sharma had won the Ghaziabad assembly by-poll. The election also saw the lowest turnout, of 33.3%, among all nine assembly seats that went for by-polls on November 20.