Polling for the Assembly byelection in Ramgarh constituency, ended on Monday with a voter turnout of 79.14%. Polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any place. The counting of votes will be taken up on February 3.
The polling in the seat was countermanded during December 2018 polls elections following the death of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Laxman Singh.
Ramgarh had shot into limelight in July 2018 following the alleged lynching of Haryana's dairy farmer Rakbar Khan by a mob of villagers near Lalawandi. However, the issue of attacks by mobs on those carrying cows was missing during the election campaign, as the candidates of various parties only raised the local development matters in the backward region.
As many as 278 polling booths were set up in the constituency and more than 2,500 police personnel were deployed for maintaining law and order. The final percentage of those who cast their votes was likely to increase, as the people who had entered the polling stations were seen standing in queues after 5:00 p.m., the scheduled time for voting to end.
About 30% of the 2.35 lakh voters turned out during the initial hours of polling. Twenty candidates, including two women, are in the fray.
The ruling Congress had fielded former Zila Pramukh Safia Khan, the wife of former MLA Zubair Khan, Bahujan Samaj Party's Jagat Singh, son of former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, had sought to make the contest triangular without much of success, while the BJP hds fielded Sukhwant Singh after denying ticket to sitting MLA Gyandev Ahuja.
The polling at the Ramgarh seat was postponed after the then BSP candidate Laxman Singh died of cardiac arrest on November 29, 2018. The December 7 Assembly election was held for 199 of the 200 constituencies in the State, in which the Congress won 99 seats and formed the government with the support of its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
