Bypolls: 10.20 % voting recorded in Kairana till 9 am

A voter turnout of 10.20 percent was recorded in Kairana Lok Sabha by-election while 6 percent was recorded in Noorpur assembly by-election till 9 a.m. on Monday.

Meanwhile, many complaints of faulty Electoral Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) machines in polling booths were being received by the Election Commission, even as people continue to queue up in scorching heat.

The voting was stalled at Public Inter College in Kairana due to faulty VVPATs machines but now the polling has resumed.

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan for Kairana Lok Sabha by-poll, has filed an official complaint to the Election Commission over the faulty Electoral Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) machines, in around 175 polling booths across Shamli, Kairana, and Noorpur, claiming 59 of these are not working.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Rajendra Chaudhary said, "There are reports that in Noorpur 140 EVMs are faulty, which is because they've tampered, and there are similar reports from Kairana. They (BJP) want to avenge defeat in Phulpur and Gorakhpur, which is why they want to defeat us at any cost."

Noorpur seats fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Lokendra Singh in a car accident.

The Kairana by-election was necessitated following the death of BJP Leader Hukum Singh. His daughter Mriganka Singh became the choice for BJP to battle it out in the constituency.

The Kairana Lok Sabha seat has around 17 lakh voters, including three lakh Muslims, four lakh backward castes (Jat, Gujjar, Saini, Kashyap, Prajapati, and others) and about 1.5 lakh Dalits. The counting of votes will be held on May 3.

(ANI)