Rajasthan bypolls: Slow start to voting in morning hours

Jaipur, Sep 13: The voter turnout was lukewarm during the morning hours in the bypolls for four assembly constituencies in

.

"The polling has been peaceful so far and is expected to pick up in the afternoon. As per tentative information, over 14.80 percent of voters had cast their votes till 9.30 a.m.," an election department official told IANS.

In 2013 assembly elections, the state had recorded a high voter turnout of over 75.67 percent.

"The voting began at 7 a.m. at over 961 polling stations spread in these four constituencies. We have made elaborate security arrangements for the peaceful polls," an election official said.

The byelections were necessitated as BJP legislators Sanwar Lal Jat from Nasirabad, Om Birla from Kota South, Santosh Ahlawat from Surajgarh, and Bahadur Singh Koli from Weir got elected to the Lok Sabha.

The Congress and the BJP are fighting on all the four seats.

Congress and the BJP are fighting on all the four seats

The state is witnessing a keen tussle between the BJP and the Congress.

In all 23 candidates are in the fray in these constituencies. Maximum of nine candidates are contesting from Surajgarh and minimum of three from Weir.

BJP has fielded Sarita Gaina from Nasirabad in Ajmer district, Gangaram Koli from Weir constituency in Bharatpur district, Sandeep Sharma from Kota South constituency in Kota and a close confidant of Vasundhara Raje, Digambar Singh from Surajgah in Jhunjhunu district.

The Congress has fielded Ramnarayan Gurjar from Nasirabad, Bhajanlal Jatav from Weir constituency, Shravan Kumar from Surajgarh and Shivkant Nandwana from Kota South.

In the the 2013 assembly elections, the Congress suffered one of its worst defeats in the history of the state, winning only 21 of the 200 assembly seats. The BJP swept the polls, winning 163 seats.

IANS