Assembly bypolls: Telangana’s Munugode records 77.55 pc voter turnout, Andheri East logs 31.74 pc

New Delhi [India], November 3 (ANI): In the Assembly bypolls held across six states, the Munugode constituency in Telangana recorded the highest voter turnout on Thursday, as per Election Commission trends.
Assembly bye-elections were held in seven vacant seats spread across the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh on Thursday.
Polling was held between 7 am to 6 pm amid tight security. The counting of votes will be conducted on November 6.
The seven Assembly constituencies where the elections are taking place are 166-Andheri East from Maharashtra, 47-Adampur from Haryana, 93-Munugode from Telangana, 139-Gola Gokranath from Uttar Pradesh and 46-Dhamnagar from Odisha.
The two constituencies of Bihar where the bye-elections are being conducted are 178-Mokama and 101-Gopalganj.
According to EC's approximate trends, 48.35 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Gopalganj constituency while 52.47 per cent was recorded in Mokama in Bihar. With 77.55 per cent voting, Telangana's Munugode recorded the highest voter turnout. Further, Adampur constituency in Haryana witnessed 75.25 per cent voter turnout.
In Odisha, there was 66.63 per cent voter turnout recorded in Dhamnagar Assembly constituency bypolls. Gola Gokrannath constituency in Uttar Pradesh recorded 55.68 per cent voter turnout. Meanwhile, the high-octane Andheri East constituency in Maharashtra witnessed the lowest voter turnout at 31.74 per cent, as per EC's approximate trends.
Bharatiya Janata Party has been in a fierce contest with regional parties such as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the Assembly bypolls in seven constituencies spread across six states.
In Mokama, RJD MLA Anant Kumar Singh was disqualified in July after his conviction in a case, while BJP's Subhash Singh, who held the Gopalganj seat, passed away in August.
The Andheri East, Gola Gokrannath and Dhamnagar constituencies, too, fell vacant due to the demise of their respective legislators.
The Shiv Sena's Ramesh Latke died in May and BJP's Arvind Giri and Bishnu Sethi both passed away in September.
In Haryana, the resignation of Kuldeep Bishnoi, and K Rajagopal Reddy in Telangana, led to vacancies in the Adampur and Munugode segments respectively.
The contest in Telangana's Munugode Assembly constituency is crucial for all major parties in the state - the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and opposition BJP and Congress.
While 47 candidates are in the fray, eyes are on BJP's Raj Gopal Reddy, former TRS MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress' Palvai Sravanthi.
In Andheri East, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction fielded Rutuja Latke, the wife of incumbent Sena MLA Ramesh Latke whose death in May necessitated the poll.
The BJP fielded Murji Patel, but he later withdrew his candidature after the party decided not to contest.
This was the first election after the revolt in the Shiv Sena by Eknath Shinde and 39 other legislators which led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
For the Mokama bypolls, the BJP fielded Sonam Devi against RJD's Neelam Devi, whose husband Anant Singh's disqualification has necessitated the bye-election.
Mokama is said to be the stronghold of Anant Singh since 2005. He won the seat twice on JD(U) tickets.
BJP gave the ticket to Kusum Devi, the wife of incumbent BJP MLA Subhash Singh while RJD fielded Mohan Prasad Gupta for the Gopalgunj by-election.
Haryana's Adampur seat witnessed the contest between BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kuldeep Bishnoi's son Bhavya contested the bypoll as the BJP candidate. The Congress fielded former Union minister Jai Prakash while the INLD picked Congress rebel Kurda Ram Nambardar as its candidate. Satender Singh was AAP's candidate.
Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of the former Chief Minister of Haryana, Chaudhary Bhajan Lal, recently resigned from Congress and joined the BJP. Adampur seat fell vacant after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned. Adampur seat is considered a stronghold of Bishnoi.
Meanwhile, eyeing the bypoll in Adampur, Panchayat and Zila Parishad elections, AAP is trying to get a foothold in Haryana.
In the bypolls to the Gola Gokarannath assembly constituency, BJP fielded Aman Giri while the Samajwadi Party (SP) gave a ticket to former MLA Vinay Tiwari.
BJD fielded Abanti Das for Odisha's Dhamnagar bypolls while the BJP fielded Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajana the son of former BJP MLA Bishnu Sethi after whose death the assembly seat fell vacant. The AAP is also in the fray and has given a ticket to Anwar Sheikh. (ANI)