Yogi’s hard work shows results in Gorakhpur, turnout up by 10%

Gorakhpur: Having lost Gorakhpur to Samajwadi Party in the 2018 bypoll, BJP had worked overtime to ensure a high voter turnout in 2019. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had won five consecutive elections from the constituency, camped for more than a week to personally monitor booth work. The results showed on Sunday, with the voter count increasing by more than 10% and touching 57.38% till 6pm.
Adityanath, who cast his vote at 7am, said the BJP contested the LS polls on the plank of development done by PM Narendra Modi over the past five years.The party is represented here by Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan who is contesting against Ram Bhuwal Nishad of the SP-BSP alliance and Madhusudhan Tripathi of the Congress. In 2014, Gorakhpur had polled 54.65% votes. Adityanath’s share was 51.80% votes, 30% more than his nearest rival from SP who polled only 21.75%.
In 2018, when the constituency faced a by-election after Adityanath resigned as an MP to become the chief minister of UP, the turnout had slumped to 47.84%. Samajwadi Party candidate Pravin Nishad, who has since switched to BJP, had won the bypoll by a margin of 21,881 votes. SP got a vote share of 48.87% against BJP’s 46.53%.
The Bansgaon parliamentary constituency, which is part of Gorakhpur district, polled 54.80% votes on Sunday. Kamlesh Paswan, the sitting MP from BJP, is up against Sadal Prasad of BSP. In 2014, the polling percentage in this constituency was 49.88%.
Polling in Gorakhpur constituency was largely peaceful with only stray cases of EVM snags. The turnout remained high in the morning hours, but dwindled as the day became hotter. The assembly segment of Gorakhpur, from where Adityanath has been winning with the highest margin, recorded the lowest polling percentage. In areas the city, especially Pipraich and Sahajanwa, long queues were seen till late in the afternoon as villagers turned up in all their finery to exercise their franchise.
Two presiding officers lost their lives during the election process. Rajaram, 56, the presiding officer of booth 381 at Madhopur Prathmik Vidyalaya in Pipraich, died around 3am. Doctors at Pipraich CHC declared him dead on arrival and said he was suffering from asthma. Vinod Srivastava, stationed at Bansgaon’s Kopwa village, died around Saturday midnight following a cardiac arrest. Both bodies have been sent for post-mortem, said assistant election officer JN Maurya.