Bypoll today in Sikandra of bandit Phoolan Devi fame

Lucknow: Polling will be held tomorrow in the Sikandra Assembly constituency in Kanpur Dehat district, a place which gained notoriety after the 1981 Behmai massacre of 21 upper caste Rajputs allegedly by bandit Phoolan Devi and her gang.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting BJP MLA Mathura Prasad Pal on July 22 due to illness.

The BJP has fielded Pal's son Ajit Pal Singh, who will fight mainly against Seema Sachan of the Samajwadi Party and Prabhakar of the Congress party. A total of 12 aspirants are in the contest, including five independent candidates.

Polling will be held from 8.00am to 5.00pm.

More than 3.21 lakh people are eligible to vote at 391 polling booths. Counting of votes will be done on December 24.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, Pal had polled 87,879 votes, defeating nearest Bahujan Samaj Party rival Mahendra Katiyar (Bablu), who got 49,776 votes.