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Bengal

76 percent votes cast in Uluberia, Noapara bypolls

Kolkata: Around 76 percent people cast their votes in the by-election to Uluberia Lok Sabha and Noapara Assembly seats which were held on Monday.
The election was peaceful in both the constituencies and the Election Commission of India (ECI) received 185 complaints from Uluberia and 98 complaints from Noapara seats.
The ECI informed the state government and all the complaints were addressed immediately.
None of the opposition parties have demanded re-polling in any booth in either of the constituencies. Thirty five companies of Central forces were deployed to maintain peace. The results will be out on February 1.
The by-elections became necessary after the incumbents of Uluberia Parliamentary and Noapara Assembly constituencies, namely Sultan Ahmed of Trinamool Congress and Madhusudan Ghose of Congress, died in 2017.
Trinamool Congress had fielded Ahmed's widow Sajda Ahmed from Uluberia and Sunil Singh, chairman of Garulia Municipality from Noapara. In 2014, Sultan Ahmed had won the seat by 2.01 lakh votes.
CPI-M had fielded Sabiruddin Mollah, who was defeated by Ahmed in 2014 Lok Sabha polls while Congress and BJP had fielded Muddasor Hossain and Anupam Mallick respectively.
Long queues of people were seen outside the polling station from early morning. Trinamool's only target is to increase the lead. Party heavyweights including Abhishek Banerjee, Firhad Hakim and Sovan Chatterjee had addressed public rallies in support of Sajda Ahmed.
After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has changed the mindset of people. Unlike the earlier days when people used to vote against the ruling party, which was called "anti-incumbency vote", now people are voting in favour of development.
In the past six years, there has been remarkable infrastructural development in Uluberia. The roads have been improved with better street lights and the primary health centres have been upgraded.
BJP alleged that in Amta under Uluberia seat, voters were intimidated, while in several booths in Noapara, like booth numbers 23, 44, 48, 67, 68, 69, 128 and 154, Trinamool supporters did not allow BJP supporters to cast their votes freely. Sandip Banerjee said "In Noapara, it was a mockery of election."
Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress secretary general, congratulated the voters.

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