LUCKNOW: More than 65 per cent of the total 3.70 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll to the Milkipur Assembly constituency of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, surpassing the turnout recorded in the 2022 assembly polls.The voting began at 7 am and continued till 5 pm, officials said, adding those who queued up outside poll booths before that will be allowed to vote.According to the Election Commission (EC), 65.35 per cent votes were cast till the completion of voting.The final poll percentage can go up as the data is compiled from all the 414 polling stations.The turnout is more than that recorded in the 2022 assembly polls when it was 60.23 per cent.Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday shared an audio clip, claiming it shows that presiding officers are trying to meet a “target” of “fake voting” to help the ruling BJP.Yadav made the allegations in a post on X and attached what he said was the audio clip of a “sting operation.” He said elections overseen by the presiding officers should be cancelled immediately and should be suspended on the basis of “prima facie audio evidence.”The SP chief also called on the Election Commission and Supreme Court to take cognisance of such “enemies of democracy.””This is a sting operation exposing the truth of presiding officers who are completing targets of fake voting for the ruling party. Elections at their booths should be cancelled immediately and they should be suspended on the basis of prima facie audio evidence and then dismissed after proper judicial action,” Yadav said.”More such videos and audios of election rigging and manipulation by the officers are coming out. When they lose their jobs and get defamed in the society, maybe then their integrity and conscience will wake up,” he said.The government, the former chief minister said, will “wash its hands off them after using them”, but the officers will be in jails and will live “a life of disgrace in the eyes of their society, their family and children.”
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