Four persons were injured during a clash in the Rupauli bye-poll.
Four persons were injured during a clash in the Rupauli bye-poll.
Patna July 10: Four persons, including a SHO, were injured during a clash between a police team and villagers amid the voting for the Rupauli assembly bye-election in Purnea district on Wednesday.
The injured officer, Tarkeshwar Prasad Singh, SHO of Bhawanipur police station, was deployed at polling booths 75 and 76 in Bhangra Madhya Vidyalaya under Bhawanipur block. He has been admitted to Bhawanipur Government Hospital for treatment. A police officer confirmed the clash and the SHO’s injury.
Villagers allege that the district police were forcibly stopping them from casting their votes, leading to a scuffle that escalated into stone-pelting on the police team. The district police, however, have denied these allegations.
Meanwhile, RJD supporters claimed that the district police initiated a lathi charge on them to prevent them from voting.
RJD candidate Bima Bharti accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of orchestrating lathi charges on RJD workers and booth agents to influence the election in favor of the JD(U) candidate.
Another incident was reported in Gorier village, where the wife of independent candidate Shankar Singh accused the police of initiating a lathi charge on voters. She sat on a dharna, but the situation has since stabilized, and voting resumed.
Despite these violent incidents, voters continue to exercise their franchise in Rupauli, with 42.19% turnout reported by 3 PM.
Following the incident, District Magistrate Kundan Kumar and Superintendent of Police Upendranath Verma visited the assembly to assess the situation.
The main contenders are Bima Bharti of RJD, Kaladhar Mandal of JD(U), and independent candidate Shankar Singh.
According to the official data released by the election commission, a total of 3 lakh, 13 thousand 664 voters will decide the fate of 11 candidates.
Among them, 1 lakh, 61 thousand 712 male, 1 lakh 51 thousand 936 female and 16 transgender voters are in this constituency.
Interestingly 59 voters are as such having ages above 100. Among them, 25 are male and 34 are female voters.
The first-time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 are 3951 including 1721 female and 2230 male voters.
The total service electors are 242 including 229 males and 13 females while PwD voters are 3055 including 1946 male and 1109 female voters.
57522 voters are in the age group of 20 to 29 including 30273 males, 27246 females and 3 transgender voters.
The electors aged above 85 years are 1967 in the constituency including 832 males and 1135 female voters.
A total of 321 polling stations have been established in 164 locations for the election. Among them, 291 are in rural areas, and 30 are in urban areas. This setup ensures that voters from various locations can conveniently exercise their electoral rights.
EOM.