28.7% voter turnout in Sonepat mayoral bypoll

Due to seemingly indifferent attitude of voters towards the mayoral bypoll for the Sonepat Municipal Corporation (MC) today, their turnout was much lower than expected by the political parties and the district administration.

Despite efforts by the parties, only 28.7 voters came out from their homes and exercised their franchise to elect the first resident of the city.

The fate of five candidates – Rajiv Jain from the BJP, Kamal Diwan from Congress, BSP candidate Dharamvir, Kamlesh Saini from AAP and an independent candidate Ramesh Kumar Khatri – was locked in the EVMs.

The results would be announced on March 12.

The polling for the mayoral seat began at a very slow pace in the morning. In the first two hours, the voter turnout was recorded as 3.6 per cent.

In the first two hours, only 10.5 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Kharkhoda Municipal Committee.

The overall voter turnout was recorded as 28.7 per cent till 7 pm in Sonepat and 62.4 per cent in Kharkhoda.

There were a total of 2,94,362 voters – 1,53,437 males, 1,40,918 females and seven transgenders – in the voters list for the Sonepat mayoral elections, but only 84,426 persons voted at 268 polling booths to elect the Sonepat Mayor.

DC Manoj Kumar Yadav, along with his wife Dr Nidhi, voted at the booth in Hindu Senior Secondary School on the Court road.

BJP mayoral candidate Rajiv Jain, along with his wife Kavita Jain, and Congress’ former MLA Surender Panwar voted at booth number 61 in Sector 15. Sonepat MLA Nikhil Madaan voted at booth number 223 in Mapsco City. Congress candidate Kamal Diwan, along with his wife Megha Diwan, voted at booth number 104 in Government School in Model Town.

Meanwhile, no untoward incident was reported during the polling in the Sonepat MC area and Kharkhoda.

Residents of Rajendra Nagar boycotted the voting today and alleged that they were forced to face problems due to the poor and dirty water supply in their area. As the matter reached Rajiv Jain, he immediately assured the residents to solve their problem on priority. After that, the residents went to vote.

Apart from this, the polling for the posts of chairman and councillors of the Kharkhoda Municipal Committee (MC) was held peacefully in Kharkhoda.

Out of the total 20,149 voters, 10,644 males and 9,502 females, a total 12,543 persons voted to elect their chairman and councillors in 15 wards out of the total 16 wards at 23 polling booths. Poonam Devi of ward 12 in the KMC has been already elected unopposed.

BJP candidate Rajiv Jain claimed his win, but was also shocked with the low voter turnout. Jain said the voters didn’t show much interest in the polling as it was the bypoll. The BJP workers worked very hard to bring out the voters from their houses for polling, Jain claimed.

DC Dr Manoj Kumar Yadav said the voters’ interest was very low in the elections, as it was the bypoll and for the mayoral post. If councillors’ election were held with it, the voters’ turnout would have been definitely much higher, the DC added.