RAMPUR: Six per cent polling was recorded in the high-profile Rampur assembly bypoll till 9 am.
The elections are significant as it is the first assembly polls after Modi led the BJP-led NDA to a resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year for a successive second term in office.
With PM Modi’s pledging ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas And Sabka Vishwas’ as its poll plank, the ruling saffron party is determined to leave no stone unturned to win the hearts of minorities in Rampur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh .
Rampur has an approximate 70.02 % of Muslim population followed by Hindus with 28.46 % approximately.
Noteworthy, the BJP has never won the seat and no Hindu candidate has been elected from there.
The Rampur bye-polls for the Rampur seat has seen the heated war of words between BJP leader Jaya Prada and her Lok Sabha elections rival and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.
Considered as a bastion of Samajwadi party and its senior leader Azam Khan, the seat got vacant after Khan elected to Lok Sabha from Rampur Parliamentary seat.
The beleaguered Azam Khan, who is facing 84 criminal cases at the moment held the Rampur constituency for almost 33 out of the last 39 years.
Khan has been, now campaigning for Samajwadi Party declared Tazeen Fatima, wife of party lawmaker Azam Khan, as its candidate for the by-polls to Rampur Assembly seat.
Fatima is a member of Rajya Sabha from the party and will contest from the seat vacated by her husband after he made his way to the Lok Sabha by defeating BJP candidate Jaya Prada from Rampur parliamentary seat.
By-polls in 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies across 18 states began on Monday, 21 October at 7 am, along with polling in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections. Counting of votes will take place on October 24.