BJP stares at big defeat in Kairana LS bypoll as RLD's Tabassum dismisses 'Modi wave'

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan has taken a massive lead of more than 41,000 votes against Mriganka Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the completion of 14 rounds of counting of votes. The RLD has been backed by opposition parties Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

With 5,43,394 votes counted in 14 rounds of counting of votes in Kairana, Tabassum Hasan of the RLD has got 2,86,705 votes while BJP's Mriganka Singh has got 2,44,627 votes. With this, the RLD is leading by over 40,000 votes against the BJP.

Speaking to Zee News, Tabassum Hasan said that BJP unnecessarily raked up the issue of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the run up to the Kairana Lok Sabha bypolls. She said that the ruling party tried to divert the attention of people and mislead them.

According to Tabassum Hasan, there will be no impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the credit for her performance goes to the people of the country and the alliance between the opposition parties.

Elections were necessitated in Kairana after the seat fell vacant in February following the death of BJP leader Hukum Singh. The BJP fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of Singh, from the seat.

Following the party’s defeat in from Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had profusely campaigned for Kairana seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Repolling at 73 booths in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency was conducted on Wednesday and witnessed estimated voter turnout of 61 per cent. The Election Commission had ordered repolling at these polling stations in view of technical snags in EVM-VVPAT machines during the bye-election on Monday.

Around 80,000 voters were eligible to cast their votes at the booths where the repolling was held.

Opposition Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal as well as the ruling BJP had complained of electronic voting machines (EVM) malfunctioning at these booths. The repoll began at 7 am and ended at 5 pm in 23 polling stations at Nakur, 44 in Gangoh and one station at Thana Bhawan in Saharanpur and five in Shamli.

On Monday, 54 per cent polling was recorded in Kairana seat, which fell vacant following the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka Singh is the saffron party candidate in the bypoll.

(With PTI inputs)