Low voter turnout in Kanpur LC bypolls

The voter turnout for the Legislative Council by-election to Kanpur division graduates' constituency was low with the Kanpur division recording the lowest participation at 28 per cent.
The voting for the elections in which 13 candidates are in fray began at 8 AM and no untoward incident was reported, EC official and Kanpur division Commissioner Mohammed Iftikaruddin said.
Out of the 252 centres for the polls, 181 are in Kanpur, 18 in Kanpur Rural and the remaining in Unnao district.
However, the voter turnout remained low in the three districts with 28 per cent in Kanpur which has around 1.77 lakh graduate voters, 31 per cent in Unnao with 39,000 registered voters and 50 per cent in Kanpur Rural against 16,000 voters.

The 181 polling centres in Kanpur division have been divided into 27 sectors and six zones, where as Kanpur Rural has been divided into 14 sectors and five zones and polling centres in Unnao into 22 sectors and eight zones, the official said.
The constituency has been the bastion of the Swaroop family for nearly six decades. For the last 34 years, Jagendra Swaroop had been the MLC from the constituency and previously, his father Virendra had retained the seat for nearly 24 years.
The by-poll was necessitated following Jagendra's death.
Jagendra's eldest son Manvendra Swaroop, who has support from Congress, is in the fray. The main contest is between him and Bramhanand College's principal Vivek Dwivedi and Arun Pathak, supported by BJP.