52 per cent poll recorded in Daltonganj bypoll

Daltonganj, Jun 02 (UNI) About 52 per cent of the 2,53,695 of the voters exercised their franchise in the Daltonganj bypolls held today, official sources said.

The voting in two polling booth - 186 and 187- began late by three hours as the presiding officer of booth number 186 failed to operate the EVMs. 187 of the total had technical fault.

The polling which began at 0700 hrs ended at 1600 hrs.

The bypoll passed off peacefully amidst few incidents of scuffle between various political outfits. Three persons were arrested in this regard.

In another incident, a supporter of a political outfit made a blank fire outside the polling booth of Daltonganj Mission school.

About 16 companies of the para-military forces and 31 of state police had been deployed in this naxal-dominated area.

In all 12 magistrates had been deployed to maintain law and order in the urban areas, official sources said.

Besides, arrangements of two helicopters had been made for ariel survey.

Altogether 24 candidates are in the fray, considered as an 'acid test' for former Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari.

According to psephologists, the main contest would be between Mr Namdhari (Independent) and Anil Chaurasia of the All Jharkhand Students Union.

Besides, Neelu Mishra of JD(U), K N Tripathi of Congress and Bobby Khan of Bahujan Samaj Party were also in the fray.

The poll was necessitated after Mr Namdhari, a former JD(U) leader, resigned from the Daltonganj Assembly seat following an intra-party conflict.

The counting of votes would be held on June 5.

UNI