An average voter turnout of 9.89 per cent was recorded till 9 am in the by-election to Bhanupratappur Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Monday, a poll official said.
Seven candidates are in the fray for the bypoll in the constituency, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, though it is largely seen as a direct contest between the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The voting began at 7 am amid tight security. In the first two hours, 9.89 per cent voter turnout was recorded,” the official said here.
BJP candidate Brahmanand Netam and Congress nominee Savitri Mandavi cast their votes in Kaswahi and Telgara polling booths respectively.
The polling will continue till 3 pm, an official said.
The byelection has been necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA and state Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Manoj Singh Mandavi after a heart attack on October 16.
The Congress has fielded his wife in the bypoll.
Sarva Adivasi Samaj, an umbrella body of tribal communities in Bastar, has also fielded its candidate, former Indian Police Service Officer Akbar Ram Korram, who is contesting as an independent.
The counting of votes will take place on December 8.
According to poll officials, 1,95,678 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise, including 95,186 men, 1,00,491 women and one third gender person.
A total of 356 polling stations have been set up, of which 239 are in rural areas and the rest in the urban part of the constituency.
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Around 2,500 security personnel, including paramilitary forces, have been roped in for the smooth conduct of polling in Bhanupratappur, which is a part of Bastar division, a senior police official said.
