Jangipur by-election on to decide fate of Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit

Twenty-one per cent votes were cast till 11 am in the by-election to the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency where President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee is a contestant.

Voters in 12 booths under Shruti and Khargram blocks boycotted poll to protest against some local grievances including bad roads and no electricity.

The sub-divisional officer of Murshidabad district and other high officials have gone to the booths to convince voters to exercise their franchise.

A few EVMs malfunctioned in some booths in the morning, delaying the start of polling but were repaired soon to enable its resumption.

The district magistrate, Rajiv Kumar, said the long border with Bangladesh in the district had been sealed. Ten companies of central forces are manning the sensitive areas.

There is an electorate of 12,40,000 in the Lok Sabha seat from where Pranab Mukherjee had been elected regularly prior to his elevation to the highest office in the nation.

The by-poll was necessitated by the resignation of Pranab Mukjerjee.

Trinamool Congress has not put up any candidate against Abhijit Mukherjee as a political gesture despite severance of ties with the Congress.

Mukherjee is pitted against Muzaffar Hussain (CPI-M) and Sudhangshu Biswas (BJP) in a multi-corner contest.

Lesser voting percentage in Jangipur LS by-election

Sixty per cent polling was recorded in the by-election to Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal today as against 84.71 per cent polling registered for the same seat in the 2009 election.

However, the polling figures are set to go up as many voters were still standing in the queue in many booths even after voting was over at 5 pm, West Bengal chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta said.

The by-election was incident-free, he said.

However, voters boycotted exercising their franchise in 26 booths on development issues and Murshidabad district magistrate held series of meetings with those who gave call to boycott voting.

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