E-Paper
Re-election at Karhal booth today amid complaints of ‘capturing’
Karhal is one of four constituencies in Mainpuri district and acquired importance after Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav decided to contest his first assembly election from here.
Re-election will be held on Wednesday at a booth in Karhal assembly constituency of Mainpuri, district election officer (DEO) Avinash Krishna Singh said.
Karhal is one of four constituencies in Mainpuri district and acquired importance after Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav decided to contest his first assembly election from here.
The re-polling was ordered by the election commission (EC) following a complaint of booth capturing on Monday by union minister and BJP candidate for Karhal seat SP Singh Baghel, Singh said. The re-polling will be held at booth number 266 at Jaswantpur primary school from 7 am to 6 pm, he said.
Baghel had sought re-polling at 64 booths in the constituency but the EC okayed the same for only one booth, where 1,113 voters will re-cast their votes.
During the third phase polling on Sunday, the polling percentage at this booth was 72.50 percent, sources said.
Karhal has remained a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party since 1993. It was only in 2002 that the seat went to the BJP.
In the 2017 assembly polls, SP candidate Sobran Yadav secured 104,000 votes from Karhal, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Prem Shakya by 38,405 votes.
Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav made his assembly poll debut from the constituency. A total of 16 districts were in the poll fray for the third phase of the assembly polls -- Kanpur, Etawah, Kannauj, Farrukhabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat under Kanpur region, Jhansi, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Lalitpur and Mahoba in Bundelkhand region, and Hathras, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah and Kasganj in the Braj region.
Among the key regions, Mainpuri district also holds significance as it has traditionally been a SP stronghold.
