LUCKNOW: The two assembly seats — Chhanbey and Suar — that went to bypolls in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday registered low voter turnout.
The Mirzapur district-based Chhanbey assembly constituency recorded 39.51 per cent on Wednesday, which was 57.91 per cent in 2022, while Rampur district’s Suar seat registered 44.95 per cent which was 69.34 per cent in previous Vidhan Sabha polls.
Both seats were lying vacant after the disqualification of Suar MLA Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, the son of SP veteran Azam Khan, while Chhanbey’s MLA Rahul Prakash Kol (39) of Apna Dal (Soneylal) passed away in February after prolonged cancer.
Meanwhile, during bypolls, the Samajwadi Party alleged that in Chhanbey constituency at booth numbers 289, 195 and 291 which are primarily dominated by Muslims, Bind and Kol communities, voters were pressurized and harassed by Apna Dal party workers in front of local administration.

Similarly, at booth numbers 222, 145, 146, 137, 138, 270 and 271, the returning officer was not allowing Samajwadi Party booth agents to execute their jobs, said the party.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in a letter to the ECI alleged that state cabinet minister Ashish Patel and Apna Dal leader were making threat calls to Samajwadi Party workers in Chhanbey in order to pressurize them.
Similarly in Rampur’s Suar assembly constituency, Samajwadi Party claimed that residents were been harassed and were not allowed to cast their voters, especially in Muslim-dominated areas — Tanda, Dadiyal, Lambakheda, Akabarabad, Rasulpur, Faridpur, Khempur and Malik Qazi areas.