KOLKATA: An estimated 82 per cent polling was recorded in the by-poll to Kanthi Dakshin Assembly in East Midnapore district today in a peaceful election, an election commission official said.
"Polling was peaceful in the Kanthi Dakshin Assembly today. Around 82 per cent voting was registered till polling ends at 6 PM," deputy electoral officer Amit Jyoti Bhattacharya said.
There was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere during the polling in which 2.5 lakh voters exercised their franchise amid strict security maintained by six companies of central forces accompanied by the state police, Bhattacharya said.
Five candidates battled it out at the hustings: Chandrima Bhattacharya of the TMC, Sourindra Mohan Jana of the BJP, Uttam Pradhan of the CPI(M), Nabakumar Nandi of the Congress and another candidate from the SUCI(C).
The by-election is necessitated by TMC MLA Dibyendu Adhikari's election to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk seat.
The counting is scheduled to be held on Thursday.en, who was among the early voters, said the bypoll was a referendum on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's two-year rule and claimed his party candidate Meenakshi Chandela will clinch the seat.
Chandela, who had faced defeat in the 2015 polls, said Congress was all set to open its book in the Delhi Assembly, where it has no presence since 2015.
AAP had reduced it to zero in a stunning verdict where it bagged 67 seats while the rest three had gone to BJP.
BJP-SAD combine candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who had won the seat in 2013, said turnout usually remains low during bypolls.
"It is not a matter of concern. The AAP will be relegated to the fourth spot. Congress will be the runner-up. There is not an iota of doubt that BJP-SAD combine will bag the seat," he said.
The seat fell vacant early this year after AAP's Jarnail Singh quit as MLA to contest Punjab Assembly poll against SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal, only to lose and considerably dent AAP's chances of holding on to the seat.
