Assembly by-polls: 63% voting in Sagardighi, 62% in Ramgarh; 59% in Erode East

Apart from the Meghalaya and Nagaland Assembly elections, three by-elections are being conducted on Monday (February 27) in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Jharkhand. Security forces are out in full strength to ensure free and fair polls.

The bypolls in the Erode (East) Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu and in the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in West Bengal are being conducted due to the death of the sitting MLAs.

Also read | Erode East by-poll: Tamil Nadu’s voter freebie culture hits new high

The by-election in the Ramgarh Assembly constituency in Jharkhand is being held because the sitting Congress MLA, Mamta Devi, was disqualified after being convicted in a criminal case.

According to the Election Commission (EC), till 3 pm, Erode had recorded 59.22% voter turnout, while Jharkhand’s Ramgarh registered 62.28% polling, and over 63.43% turnout was recorded in Bengal’s Sagardighi.

Also read: Polling begins in Erode East constituency in TN

The Erode election has seen senior leaders from the various political parties campaigning, including Chief Minister MK Stalin of the DMK and Edappadi Palaniswami of the AIADMK. The DMK-Congress alliance candidate in the election is Congress leader and former Union Minister, EVKS Elangovan, whose son E Thirumahan Everaa was the sitting MLA.

The West Bengal bypoll is witnessing a contest among candidates from the ruling party Trinamool Congress (Debashish Banerjee), the Congress-Left alliance (Bayron Biswas), and the BJP (Dilip Saha).

In Jharkhand, the Congress candidate is Bajrang Mahto, the husband of the disqualified MLA, Mamta Devi, while the All Jharkhand Students Union has fielded its leader Sunit Choudhary. There are 18 other candidates in the fray, including 14 independents.

The results of the byelections will be announced on March 2.

(With agency inputs)