The Election Commission of India (ECI) recorded 18.72 per cent oter turnout in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha Assembly Seat in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Polling in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency was mandated following the demise of the sitting MP and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav. The party has fielded his daughter-in-law and wife of Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple Yadav. She is pitted against BJP's former MP Raghuraj Singh Shakya.
So far, Mainpuri has been a stronghold of the Samajwadi Party.
Samajwadi Party patron Late Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Abhay Ram Yadav cast his vote at Abhinav Vidyalaya in Saifai, Etawah and said that there is no competition with any political party.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav cast his vote for the ongoing election at a polling booth in Etawah, following which he alleged that police was restricting voters from casting their votes.
"I don't know on whose orders the administration is working from the day polling started. What briefing has been given to him. Complaints are coming continuously since morning. Police is not allowing people to cast votes," Akhilesh Yadav said while addressing a press conference after casting his vote.
Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party's Shivpal Singh Yadav also alleged that there is administrative pressure on them and their workers were attacked.
"Administrative pressure so far, our workers were attacked. I alerted them last night to not get caught by the Police and reach polling booths at 7 am and facilitate voting," Shivpal Singh Yadav alleged.
Meanwhile, SP's candidate Dimple Yadav alleged in a tweet that the District Magistrate of Mainpuri was not receiving the calls of SP workers.
"DM Mainpuri is not receiving calls of SP workers regarding the complaint of rigging in the elections. Election Commissioner should take note of it," she tweeted in Hindi.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders earlier in the morning thronged to cast their votes claiming that the party candidate Dimple Yadav will win with "three times more votes" than what Mulayam Singh Yadav garnered.
SP MP Ram Gopal Yadav cast his vote in Etawah's Saifai. "Dimple Yadav (party's candidate for the by-election) will win with three times more votes than what Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) used to get," he said.
Meanwhile, voting for the by-elections for the six assembly seats in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh is also underway, wherein UP's Rampur has still recorded the lowest turnout of 11.30 pc while Odisha's Padampur saw 29.73 pc voter turnout.
( With inputs from ANI )
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