Congress candidate contesting for Bhanupratappur seat in Chhattisgarh Savitri Mandavi claimed that people have been voting for the Congress as their government has set "standards of development."
"The atmosphere here is in favour of Congress because our government has set development standards. Looking at the work done by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's government in four years, people are voting for us," Congress candidate Savitri Mandavi said after casting her vote at a polling booth in Kanker for the by-polls election.
An anticipated direct contest between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected at the Bhanupratappur seat after Congress MLA Manoj Singh Mandavi passed away last month.
The Congress has fielded Savitri Mandavi, the wife of the deceased MLA in a bid to retain the seat while BJP has fielded a former MLA. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
Bhanupratappur has recorded 31.27 pc voter turnout till 11 am today.
The voting for the by-elections is also underway for the six assembly seats in Bihar's Kurhani, Odisha's Padampur, Rajasthan's Sardarshahar and Rampur and Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh.
In Odisha's Padampur, a voter turnout of 29.73 pc was recorded.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Khatauli seat observed a voting turnout of 20.70 pc, whereas its Rampur assembly seat saw it at 11.30 per cent till 11 am.
The bypolls Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated after SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified in separate cases.
Notably, Khan was disqualified in a hate speech case and the BJP MLA Saini after his conviction and sentence of two-year imprisonment in a 2013 riot case was also disqualified.
"Barbarism being done and people being arrested, beaten up. Police are going to colonies & telling people not to step out to vote. People in one colony locked up their houses and migrated in fear. They are saying it everywhere not to cast votes," Azam Khan said.
BJP has fielded Rajkumari Saini on the Khatauli seat while Madan Bhaiya is RLD-SP's candidate. Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party are out of the by-polls race.
In Rajasthan, the death of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma after a prolonged illness necessitated the polls in Sardarshahar and the voting turnout here was recorded at 19.87 pc.
Polling is underway in UP's Mainpuri Assembly seat as well where the Samajwadi Party has fielded Dimple Yadav at its stronghold seat after the demise of party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in October.
( With inputs from ANI )
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