Voting for bypolls on 10 assembly seats – Maharashtra (Palus Kadegaon constituency), Uttar Pradesh (Noorpur), Bihar (Jokihat), Jharkhand (Gomia and Silli), Kerala (Chengannur), Meghalaya (Ampati), Punjab (Shahkot), Uttarakhand (Tharali) and West Bengal (Maheshtala) – concluded today.
The reports of EVM glitches created uproar in several assemblies as politicians from almost all parties reached out to Election Commission seeking an enquiry into the matter.
The commission, however, dismissed the claim that elections were affected by faulty EVMs as, it claimed, that either the voting machines were fixed soon or they were replaced with extra available EVMs. The commission blamed persisting heat wave for the machine problems.
As it Happened:
08:50 pm: 61 per cent voter turnout recorded in UP's Noorpur bypolls till 6 pm
08:43 pm: 75% and 62% voter turnout recorded in Silli and Gomia, counting on May 31 (Read full story)
08:00 pm: At least 76% voter turnout recorded in Chenganur assembly constituency of Kerala (Read full story here)
07:40 pm: Bihar's Jokihaat registers 53 per cent voter turnout (Read full story)
07:40 pm: Jharkhand's Gomia registers 63 per cent voter turnout
06:40 pm: 68 per cent voter turnout registered in Uttrakhand's Tharali till 5 pm
05:46 pm:
05:45 pm: All the electors who are in the queue in the polling booth, at the time of close of voting, should be facilitated to cast their votes. This is given due publicity by the concerned district election machinery in the polling areas: Election Commission
05:31 pm: 69% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm in Shahkot assembly by-election Punjab
05:31 pm: 70.01% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm in Maheshtala assembly by-poll in West Bengal
05:31 pm: 57% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm in UP's Noorpur assembly by-election
05:02 pm: Total number of EVM replaced till now is 34 in Maheshtala assembly bypoll in West Bengal.
01:58 pm: 44% voter turnout recorded till 1 pm in Shahkot assembly by-election
01:08 pm:
12:24 pm: Around 18 per cent polling was registered till 10 am today in the bypoll to Jokihat Assembly seat in Bihar
11:58 am: 31% voting recorded till 11 am in Shahkot assembly by-election
10:43 am: 15.78% polling in the first two hours at Maheshtala bye-election in West Bengal
10:42 am: There are reports that in Noorpur 140 EVMs are faulty, which is because they've been tampered, there are similar reports from Kairana. They (BJP) want to avenge defeat in Phulpur & Gorakhpur, which is why they want to defeat us at any cost : Rajendra Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party
10:31 am:
10:17 am: 15 per cent voter turnout recorded in Noorpur, 12% in Silli (Jharkhand), 15% in Shahkot (Punjab)
09:48 am:
08:50 am:
08:40 am:
08:05 am: In Punjab's Shahkot, the main contest is between the ruling Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), making it a three-cornered contest.
07:51 am:
07:30 am:
07:20 am:
07:06 am:
06:58 am: