Over 55% polling till 5 pm in Uttarakhand's Bageshwar assembly bypoll

More than 55 per cent of the electorate cast their votes on Tuesday to seal the fate of five candidates in the fray for the Bageshwar assembly bypoll in Uttarakhand.

Till 5 pm, 55.42 per cent voting was recorded, Bageshwar District Magistrate Anuradha Paul told PTI.

Voters were still standing in the queue at the booths at 5 pm, the closing time for polling. Those already in queue will be allowed to vote and the final polling percentage will go up, the DM said.

Polling was peaceful with no untoward incident reported from anywhere, she said, adding an EVM machine at Mandal Sera polling booth went out of order at 2 pm which was quickly replaced.

There are about 1.2 lakh voters in the constituency.

Earlier, people, including women, in large numbers began queuing up outside the polling booths from 6 am.

The BJP has fielded Parvati Das against Congress candidate Basant Kumar.

Parvati Das is the wife of Chandan Ram Das whose death in April this year necessitated the bypoll. He had won from the seat four times since 2007.

The bypoll is important as its verdict will reflect the mood of voters in Uttarakhand ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP won all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections.

The bypoll result is also being touted as a progress report of the Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami-led BJP government, which has completed over a year of its second term after registering a massive win in the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections.