LUCKNOW: More than 65 per cent of the total 3.70 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll to the Milkipur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, surpassing the turnout recorded in the 2022 assembly polls.
The voting began at 7 am and continued till 5 pm, officials said, adding those who queued up outside poll booths before that will be allowed to vote.
According to the Election Commission (EC), 65.35 per cent votes were cast till the completion of voting.
The final poll percentage can go up as the data is compiled from all the 414 polling stations.
The turnout is more than that recorded in the 2022 assembly polls when it was 60.23 per cent.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday shared an audio clip, claiming it shows that presiding officers are trying to meet a "target" of "fake voting" to help the ruling BJP.
Yadav made the allegations in a post on X and attached what he said was the audio clip of a "sting operation." He said elections overseen by the presiding officers should be cancelled immediately and should be suspended on the basis of "prima facie audio evidence."
The SP chief also called on the Election Commission and Supreme Court to take cognisance of such "enemies of democracy."
"This is a sting operation exposing the truth of presiding officers who are completing targets of fake voting for the ruling party. Elections at their booths should be cancelled immediately and they should be suspended on the basis of prima facie audio evidence and then dismissed after proper judicial action," Yadav said.
"More such videos and audios of election rigging and manipulation by the officers are coming out. When they lose their jobs and get defamed in the society, maybe then their integrity and conscience will wake up," he said.
The government, the former chief minister said, will "wash its hands off them after using them", but the officers will be in jails and will live "a life of disgrace in the eyes of their society, their family and children."
Yadav added that all honest and truthful officers who refused to partake in the "target of fake voting given by the BJP office" should be praised.
In another post earlier with photographs, Yadav claimed that police personnel were checking voters' IDs in the Milkipur constituency, where polling is underway for the assembly by-election, to "create fear" among them and urged the Election Commission to immediately remove them.
In a post on X, Yadav shared a picture of a police officer checking the ID card of a person outside a polling booth.
"The Election Commission should immediately take cognisance of the pictures related to this news that Ayodhya Police is checking the ID cards of voters in Milkipur, in which senior police officers are also involved," Yadav said in his post in Hindi.
"This is a murder of democracy by indirectly influencing voting by creating fear among voters. Such people should be removed immediately and punitive action should be taken," he said.
Ayodhya Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raj Karan Nayyar said the picture shows police personnel verifying the ID card of a polling agent. He asserted that law enforcement officers are not checking voters' identification documents.
Yadav also posted another video on X, claiming another case of fake voting in Rai Patti Amaniganj. "The person casting fake votes in Rai Patti Amaniganj in the Milkipur by-election has made it clear how the officials in the BJP government are involved in rigging. Does the Election Commission need any more proof?" the SP chief said in his post.
In Milkipur, it is a two-way contest in the assembly bypoll between SP's Ajit Prasad and the BJP's Chandrabhanu Paswan. Ten candidates are in the fray in total. In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Milkipur was the only assembly seat the BJP lost in Ayodhya district.
The bypoll was necessitated as SP's Awadhesh Prasad vacated the Milkipur seat after winning the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Even as the SP is looking to retain the seat, the BJP sees the election as an opportunity to avenge its loss in Faizabad.