Lucknow, June 11 (IANS) Brisk voting was reported from Uttar Pradesh's Mant legislative assembly constituency where by-election is being held Tuesday.
According to Election Commission officials, around 40 percent voting has taken place so far. The by-poll was necessitated following the resignation of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Chowdhary, who preferred to retain his Mathura Lok Sabha seat over his MLA seat.
In all, there are 14 candidates in the fray, and the contest is between RLD candidate Yogesh Chowdhary, ruling Samajwadi Party's (SP) Chaudhary Sanjay Lathar, and Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Shyam Sundar Sharma. The Congress is supporting the RLD candidate while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not fielded candidates.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav canvassed for his party candidate Lathar, who is an important core team member which helped the Samajwadi Party win the state assembly elections.
Pandit Shyam Sundar Sharma, who won the Mant seat six times since 1989 and has hob-nobbed with different parties in his political career, is now a Trinamool Congress candidate and is considered a very strong contender.
To encourage balloting, the Election Commission has allowed those not having election ID cards to vote on the strength of a driving license and a passport. Voters can also cast ballots by showing their PAN card or ID cards issued by public sector companies of the state and central government.
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