Highlights: Bhabhanipur records 53% voter turnout till 5pm
Bypolls across three assembly segments in West Bengal – Bhabanipur, Samserganj, and Jangipur; and one in Odisha – Pipili-- commenced at 7am on Thursday.
Bypolls are being conducted on Thursday in three assembly constituencies in West Bengal – Bhabanipur, Samserganj, and Jangipur; as well as one other constituency in Odisha – Pipili. All eyes are on the Bhabanipur by-election, which will decide Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's fate as chief minister. According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission earlier this month, the nearly 12-hour process of voting began across the assembly segments at 7am on September 30, while the votes will be counted in all these seats on October 3. ...Read More
Samserganj records 78% turnout
Poll % at 5 P.M.
56- Samserganj - 78.60%
58- Jangipur - 76.12%
159- Bhabanipur - 53.32%
TMC's Sovandeb Chatterjee casts his vote
TMC's Sovandeb Chatterjee, who had resigned as MLA from Bhabanipur for Mamata Banerjee to contest the bypolls, cast his vote, reports ANI.
"It's my pleasure to vote for her (Mamata Banerjee). She will win," he said.
ISKCON temple monks cast their votes for Bhabanipur bypolls at La Martiniere School, Kolkata
ISKCON temple monks cast their votes at the La Martiniere school in Kolkata for the Bhabanipur assembly constituency bypoll, reports ANI.
Mamata Banerjee leaves polling booth after casting vote
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee left the Mitra Institution polling booth in Bhabanipur after casting her vote, reports ANI.
West Bengal bypolls: Samserganj records highest voter turnout with 72.45% as of 3pm
Voter turnout in West Bengal assembly bypolls till 3pm:
Samserganj - 72.45%
Jangipur - 68.17%
Bhabanipur - 48.08%
59.72% voter turnout till 3pm in Odisha's Pipili
59.72% voter turnout recorded till 3pm in Odisha's Pipili assembly constituency.
BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal says TMC paying people to cast vote
BJP candidate for Bhabanipur Priyanka Tibrewal said that the TMC was paying people to cast their vote and also said that she has informed the authorities about the same, reports ANI.
Bypolls: 45.32% polling recorded in Odisha's Pipili till 1pm
45.32% voter turnout recorded till 1pm in Odisha's Pipili assembly bypoll.
Mamata Banerjee to cast her vote at Mitra Institution booth at 3:15pm
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will cast her vote at a booth in the Mitra Institution school in Bhabanipur at 3.15pm.
EC gets 40 complaints about election rigging, threats; 23 of them lodged by BJP
The poll panel has received around 40 complaints regarding election rigging, threats, and influencing voters in the three constituencies. Out of this, the BJP has lodged around 23 complaints.
Bengal bypolls: Samserganj records highest polling percentage at 40, Bhabanipur shows 22% polling till 11am
Polling percentage till 11am:
Bhabanipur - 22%
Samserganj - 40%
Jangipur - 36%
Pipili bypolls: 24.76% polling recorded till 11am
Voting is underway for the bypolls in four assembly segments across India – three in West Bengal: Bhabanipur, Samserganj, and Jangipur; and one in Odisha – Pipli. 24.76% polling has been recorded till 11am in Odisha's Pipili.
Aged electors vote in Bhabanipur bypolls
Odisha: BJP candidate Rudra Pratap Maharathy casts vote in Pipili bypolls
7.8 per cent polling recorded in Odisha's Pipili till 9am
So far (till 9am), 7.8 per cent of the voters in Odisha's Pipili have cast their votes in the bypolls. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha, Sushil Kumar Lohani, said that to ensure the safety of voters against Covid-19, each of them is being provided with hand gloves, masks, and sanitisers.
Samserganj: Local TMC leader Anarul Haque arrested after bombs hurled ahead of bypolls
Samserganj: Local TMC leader Anarul Haque has been arrested in connection with a bunch of bombs that were hurled in the Bengal constituency a few hours ahead of the bypolls.
Bypolls underway in 4 assembly segments; here are the polling percentages in Bengal at 9am
Polling percentage at 9am:
Assembly Constituency 56 - Samserganj - 16.32 per cent
Assembly Constituency 58 - Jangipur - 17.51 per cent
Assembly Constituency 159 - Bhabanipur - 7.57 per cent
Explained: The three-cornered contest in Jangipur bypolls
Comprising the Jangipur municipality and the community blocks of Suti and Raghunathganj, which includes two gram panchayat areas, the Jangipur assembly seat in Bengal’s Murshidabad district is set to witness a triangular contest on Wednesday.
The seat is part of the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency. Late former President Pranab Mukherjee won the Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2009. His son, Abhijit Mukherjee, who joined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in July, represented the seat in parliament twice. The TMC wrested the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Read More
Bypolls underway in Murshidabad's Jangipur constituency
Mamata's prestige battle: Voting in Bhabanipur by-poll amid tight security after bitter campaign
EVM malfunction reported in Odisha's Pipili, glitches mar voting machines in 3 booths
Voting was delayed in a booth of Pipili due to EVM malfunction while glitches in the EVM machine were reported in two more booths.
Voting underway for by-election to Odisha's Pipili seat
The by-poll to Odisha’s Pipili assembly seat is being held with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress hoping to wrest it from the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) that has held it since 2000. It was necessitated after BJD lawmaker Pradeep Maharathy, who won the seat a record seven times, died of Covid in October last year. The by-poll was first scheduled on April 17, but it was postponed after Congress candidate Ajit Mangaraj’s death three days before the polling. It was rescheduled to May 16. The by-poll was deferred again as a lockdown was imposed in view of rising Covid-19 cases. Read More
Bhabanipur bypolls: 90-year-old casts her vote in election to decide Mamata's fate as CM
Election Commission distributes sanitiser and gloves among electors in Bhabanipur
BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal alleges Section 144 not enforced during bypolls
Priyanka Tibrewal, the BJP candidate for the Bhabanipur bypolls, alleged on Thursday morning that Section 144 has not been enforced during the election process despite the Election Commission and the Kolkata Police claiming to have imposed so. According to a notification issued by the EC, the prohibitory order against the assembly of five or more people ought to remain in force from 6:30pm on Tuesday till the end of the poll on September 30.
Bhabanipur bypoll underway amid tight security
The by-election to Bhabanipur assembly seat in south Kolkata, being contested by Mamata Banerjee to retain West Bengal’s chief ministership, started at 7 am on Thursday amid tight security, officials said. Elections to Samserganj and Jangipur assembly seats in Bengal’s Murshidabad are also being held today after they were deferred in April following the death of two candidates. The counting of votes will be done on October 3. Read More
Bhabanipur bypoll: EC rejects BJP claim of booth rigging, cites mock poll delay
The Election Commission on Thursday said there was some delay in starting the polling process in one of the booths in Bhabanipur from where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is seeking a seat in the legislature through a bypoll. The polling body said the delay was due to the mock poll drive exercise and not rigging of the booth as alleged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal against Banerjee and has been raising allegations of a missing level-playing field in the keenly watched constituency. “No rigging took place,” the EC said. Read More
Bombs hurled in Bengal's Samserganj hours before bypolls
Bombs were hurled in West Bengal's Samserganj a few hours before the voting for the bypolls commenced in the assembly segment at 7am on Thursday. Presently, the voting is underway at Samserganj and two other assembly constituencies in West Bengal, and one other in Odisha – Pipili.
Priyanka Tibrewal accuses TMC MLA Madan Mitra of ‘purposely’ shutting voting machines in Bhabanipur
West Bengal government is ‘in fear’ right now: BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal, candidate for Bhabanipur bypolls
Priyanka Tibrewal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Bhabanipur bypolls, said that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government is “in fear” right now, referring to the fact that Banerjee's fate as chief minister hangs in balance, conditional upon the result of the by-election. “We're hoping for fair elections,” Tibrewal told the ANI news agency. “I will visit polling booths in the area today. The state government is in fear right now.”
Bypolls: Polling begins in Bhabanipur, 2 other Bengal segments, and Odisha's Pipili
Voting has begun for the bypolls in the keenly-watched assembly segment of Bhabanipur and two other constituencies in West Bengal; as well as in Odisha's Pipili. The voting is slated to continue till 6:30pm, according to the Election Commission. Photos posted by the ANI news agency showed visuals from the Mitra Institution in Bhabanipur on Thursday.
Bhabanipur bypolls: Voting to commence at 7am, preparations begin
In photos posted by the ANI news agency, election officials were seen preparing ahead of the Bhabanipur bypoll, the voting for which is set to commence at 7am and end at 6pm.
Why is the Bhabanipur by-election being held?
Although Trinamool Congress won the assembly elections with a thumping majority earlier this year and formed the government in West Bengal for the third consecutive time, chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself lost against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Suvendu Adhikari – a former aide of the TMC supremo – in a high-profile contest from the Nandigram assembly constituency. However, Banerjee still became the chief minister, conditional upon the fact that she will have to win her way back to the state assembly within a six-month grace period.
Later, West Bengal agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay vacated his Bhabanipur seat, necessitating the bypolls to let the party supremo contest from her home turf. Indeed, Mamata Banerjee is reportedly at ease in Bhabanipur, a constituency she had won both in the 2016 and the 2011 elections.
Bypolls to begin in 3 assembly segments in Bengal, 1 in Odisha
Bypolls are to begin on Thursday in three assembly segments of West Bengal – Bhabanipur, Samserganj, and Jangipur; as well as one other constituency in Odisha – Pipili. All eyes are on the Bhabanipur bypolls, which will decide Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's fate as the chief minister of West Bengal at the end of her six-month grace period where she functioned in office despite losing the assembly polls herself earlier this year. Read More
