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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 MoreSamserganj 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.
