Sikandra bypoll peaceful, nearly 53pc turnout

Braving cold weather, nearly 53 per cent of the total 3.21 lakh electorate today cast their votes in the Assembly byelection in Sikandra of bandit Phoolan Devi fame.
"There was average 53 per cent polling till 5pm. There was no incident related to booth capturing, interruption or obstruction during polls," Joint Chief Electoral Officer Ramesh Chandra Rai said.
Voting was initially slow in the morning because of cold conditions, but picked up gradually and by the end of the polling hours at 5pm, nearly 53 per cent ballots were cast, election office sources here said.
Sikandra constituency falls in Kanpur Dehat district, a place which gained notoriety after the 1981 Behmai massacre of 21 upper caste Rajputs allegedly by Phoolan Devi and her gang.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting BJP MLA Mathura Prasad Pal on July 22 due to illness.
The BJP has fielded Pal's son Ajit Pal Singh, who will fight mainly against Seema Sachan of the Samajwadi Party and Prabhakar of the Congress party. A total of 12 aspirants are in the contest, including five independent candidates.

Counting of votes will be done on December 24.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, Pal had polled 87,879 votes, defeating the nearest Bahujan Samaj Party rival Mahendra Katiyar (Bablu), who got 49,776 votes.
In Behmai village, Phoolan Devi and her gang allegedly killed 21 Rajput men in 1981 to avenge her rape. She surrendered to the police in 1983 and went on to become an MP from Mirzapur. She was shot dead outside her Delhi residence on July 25, 2001.