Assembly bypolls peaceful across 4 states; High turnout in WB's Kaliganj

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Bypolls were held in five Assembly segments across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala on Thursday, with the Kaliganj seat in West Bengal registering nearly 70% polling by 5 pm.
Officials said that the polling that commenced at 7 am and concluded at 6 pm was largely peaceful, with the exception of a few isolated incidents, PTI reported.
While the deaths of the incumbent MLAs necessitated the bypolls in one seat each in Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab, the resignation of two legislators led to the polling in Kerala and another seat in Gujarat.
At Kaliganj in West Bengal's Nadia district, a voter turnout of 69.85 per cent was recorded till 5 pm. Sources said the polling percentage may go further up as there were queues outside polling booths.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Nasiruddin Ahamed in February. His daughter, Alifa Ahamed, was fielded in the bypoll by the ruling TMC. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Ashis Ghosh for the contest, while Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh is in the fray with the support of the CPI(M).
Kerala's Nilambur constituency saw a steady voter turnout of 59.68 per cent till 3 pm. People came out in good numbers at the 263 polling booths across the constituency, which has over 2.32 lakh voters.
Among the 10 contestants, the key contenders are ruling LDF's pick M Swaraj, Aryadan Shoukath (of the Congress-led UDF), TMC state convenor and independent candidate P V Anvar and Mohan George of the BJP-led NDA. Anvar, presently the state convener of the TMC, resigned as the MLA of the constituency following his severing of ties with the CPI(M)-led LDF over certain allegations levelled by him against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his close aides.
In Gujarat, the Visavadar seat in Junagadh district recorded a poll percentage of 54.61 and Kadi in Mehsana district saw a voter turnout of 54.49 per cent till 5 pm.
The Visavadar seat was lying vacant since December 2023, after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP. The Kadi seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, fell vacant on February 4 following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.
In the Visavadar seat, BJP candidate Kirit Patel and Congress nominee Nitin Ranpariya cast their votes in the early hours. The AAP fielded its former Gujarat president, Gopal Italia, from Visavadar. He is not registered as a voter in the constituency.
Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007. Party leaders are hopeful this time of overcoming the 18-year jinx. In the 2022 Assembly polls, Bhayani defeated BJP's Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat and former MLA, by 7,063 votes.
The BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda from Kadi, while the Congress has given ticket to former MLA Ramesh Chavda. Chavda won the seat in 2012, but lost it to the BJP's Karsanbhai Solanki in 2017. Like Visavadar, Kadi will also witness a three-way fight, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP fielding Jagdish Chavda.
Punjab saw a voter turnout of 49.07 per cent till 3 pm in the Ludhiana West seat. The seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora, Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta and Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Parupkar Singh Ghuman also cast their votes.
According to the EC, a total of 1,354 polling stations were set up for the bypolls and webcasting was held at 1,353, the poll authority said.
This was also the first time that the EC provided a mobile-phone deposit facility to voters. The deposit centres were set up outside polling stations. So far, no such facility was available and some voters hid phones in their clothes and carried those inside polling stations, which is against rules.
The bypoll results will be declared on June 23.