Surat West by-poll: 28 per cent voting till noon

AHMEDABAD: Nearly 28 per cent polling was recorded till noon on Wednesday for the by-polls to Surat West Assembly constituency, an Election Commission official said.

"Till noon, 28 per cent polling was recorded. The voting percentage is expected to go higher. No untoward incident has been reported so far," an ECI official said.

Surat Collector Jayprakash Shivhare said that there were problems in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in at least three polling booths which were replaced with new ones.

No incident was reported from any of the polling booths, he said, adding that voting has been peaceful.

BJP's city unit president Purnesh Modi and Congress candidate D L Patel are battling it out for the Surat West seat. The saffron party has been winning the seat continuously for the last 20 years.

By-election to the Surat West Assembly seat was necessitated following the untimely death of sitting BJP MLA Kishore Vankawala, who passed away this June.

The campaigning was a low-key affair in the bypoll as no national leader of both the main rival parties campaigned.

More than 2 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 201 polling booths, out of which 37 have been identified as sensitive.

The counting of votes will take place on December 8. The ruling BJP has 119 MLAs in the 182-member Legislative Assembly.