Ahmedabad: A high voter turnout marked
the by-election in Mansa constituency of Gandhinagar district on Sunday, as over 75 per cent voting was recorded as per the
primary estimates, district officials said.
"There was an unexpected high turnout of voters in the
Mansa constituency. The primary estimates from the booths
suggests over 75 per cent voting," Gandhinagar District
collector P Swaroop told PTI.
The voting in over 200 polling booths of the
constituency remained peaceful, he said.
"We did not receive any complaints of technical
glitches in the EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) or violence
or disturbance from any of the polling booths," he said.
Swaroop said that there were some complaints related
to long ques and slow pace of voting. "But, this was mostly
because of the high voter turnout," he added.
According to Swaroop, the Election Commission had
distributed slips to all the eligible voters in the
constituency this time. "This could have been the reason for a
large turnout," he said.
The by-poll in Mansa was required, as former Speaker
and BJP MLA Mangaldas Patel had died.
The fight was between DD Patel of BJP and Babuji
Thakor of Congress.
Though the term of the newly-elected MLA will only be
for around eight months, as the Assembly polls are scheduled
in December later this year, both, the main political parties
-Congress and BJP- had made this by-poll a "prestige issue".
BJP senior leaders had campaigned for the seat and
have been deputed by the party to look after the elections.
The Congress, on the other hand, has claimed that they
are positive that people of Mansa will vote for their party
this time.
The seat has been held by the BJP from 1995, but the
margin of win has not been very high for them.
In 2007, Mangaldas Patel had defeated Thakore (who is
again contesting on Congress ticket this time) by just over
3,000 votes.
The voting had taken place under tight security
arrangements, with videography done in every polling booth.
The counting will be held on March 21.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, March 18, 2012, 12:52