Bypolls to four Rajasthan assembly seats tomorrow

The stage is set for bypolls to four Assembly constituencies in Rajasthan tomorrow in which 8.95 lakh voters will decide the fate of 23 candidates in the fray.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made in the four Assembly constituencies -- Weir, Kota-South, Nasirabad and Surajgarh -- for voting tomorrow, which will begin at 7 AM and continue till 6 PM, a senior official in the Chief Electoral Office said today. "As many as 23 candidates, including four each from ruling BJP and opposition Congress, are in the fray. About 8.95 lakh eligible voters, 4.70 lakh men and 4.24 lakh women, would exercise their franchise at the 950 polling stations that has been set up in all the four constituencies. Of these, 242 have been marked as 'critical'," the official said.

There are about 2.40 lakh voters in Surajgarh seat of Jhunjhunu district, 2.17 lakh in Weir seat of Bharatpur, 1.95 lakh in Nasirabad seat of Ajmer, and 2.41 lakh in Kota-South seat. The bypolls were necessitated after the sitting MLAs -- Sanwar Lal Jat (Nasirabad), Om Birla (Kota-South), Santosh Ahlawat (Surajgarh) and Bahadur Singh Koli (Weir) -- resigned from the assembly following their election to Lok Sabha. 

Counting of votes would be held on September 16. "To ensure free and fair polling, 16 companies of paramilitary forces, eight companies of Rajasthan Armed Constabulary, and 6,000 policemen would be deployed in all the four constituencies," Special DGP (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh said.