Bihar: Over 57 pc voter turnout in Rupauli assembly bypoll; mob attacks police

Patna/Purnea: More than 57 per cent of over three lakh voters exercised their franchise in by-poll to Rupauli assembly seat in Bihar, where a mob attacked a police party leaving two officials injured on Wednesday. Polling started at 7 am and continued till 6 pm in the seat falling in Purnea district. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for JD(U) several times in the past but quit the party recently to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket.

Following her loss in the parliamentary election, she contested the by-poll as an RJD candidate. "A voter turnout of 57.25 per cent was recorded, down from 61.19 per cent for the same constituency in 2020 assembly polls," the Election Commission said in the state capital. In Purnea, Sub Divisional Police Officer (Sadar) Pushkar Kumar said, "A large crowd gathered at a booth in Bhawanipur block. When the police personnel on duty asked the bystanders to disperse, they were attacked with stones and sticks".

The SDPO added that polling got disrupted for some time because of the clash in which a sub-inspector and a constable were injured. The two injured were taken to a hospital and the local police were trying to identify and trace the attackers for appropriate action. Altogether 11 candidates were in the fray in the by-poll, in which the JD(U) had fielded Kaladhar Prasad Mandal, who had contested the 2020 assembly polls from the seat as an Independent. Former MLA Shankar Singh, who recently quit the LJP (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, was also in the fray as an independent. Votes will be counted on July 13.