Over 81% voter turnout in Ellenabad bypoll

Chandigarh: The Ellenabad bypolls which is being considered a triangular battle among the ruling faction BJP-JJP, the opposite parties Congress and the Indian National Lokdal (INLD) witnessed over 81.34 percent voter turnout. Although, the election remained quite peaceful which has been relieving for the Election Commission as well as the local administration. The result is to be declared on 2 November. Political experts continue to speculate that voting at such a large scale may be harmful for the contestant of the ruling faction as it is evident from a string of previous elections.  It is worth mentioning that rural voters were reported to be in long queues from the very beginning to the end. Experts are taking this higher voting percentage as a reaction to the contentious three agriculture laws to some extent as the farmers’ leaders had appealed to them to vote against the  contestant  fielded by the BJP-JJP. Besides, the women in rural areas were reported casting their vote at large scale.

The data revealed that the nearly 43.03 percent voter turnout was reported till 1 PM to be followed by 63.8 percent and 73.31 percent till 4 PM and 5 PM surprising everyone. In wake of the ongoing tussle among all factions, conduct of smooth and peaceful election was an uphill task for both the Election Commission and the local administration. Keeping in view this challenge, force was deployed at large scale in the constituency to ensure the peaceful conduct of the election. Besides, the officials deployed over there were in constant touch with the state Election Commission and giving even minor information. Besides, several battalions of the force were deployed at the state border adjoining the neighboring Rajasthan and Punjab to eye on the elements with ill intention to create any kind of obstruction during the polling.

In continuation to aforesaid, what is of utmost importance to state is that farmer agitation remained in the centre for the whole time during election and following the vote polled at such scale, the kisan leaders claiming that farmers protest led to the huge defeat of the BJP and JJP contestant. The farmer leaders continued to canvas in support of the INLD candidate Abhay Singh Chautala which kept the opposite contestants on toes. Although, nothing can be said exactly until the result comes out  but it cannot be denied to some extent that extended support by the farmers to Abhay helped him a lot.

After the polling process has come to an end, Everyone is eyeing the results as the prestige of a string of stalwarts hailing from different factions is at stake. Debacle in the by-poll is most likely to affect them as they had put their best  for concassing. All parties left no stone unturned during canvassing to add one more seat to their faction in the Vidhansabha.