Anand

Polling for the by-election in Umreth Assembly Constituency registered a voter turnout of 37.14 per cent till 1 pm on Thursday, according to election officials.

Voting began at 7 am and is scheduled to continue until 6 pm across 306 polling stations. Authorities said the process has remained peaceful so far, with no untoward incidents reported.

The bypoll was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar last month. The contest is mainly between Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Harshad Govindbhai Parmar and Indian National Congress nominee Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan. Both candidates cast their votes earlier in the day and expressed confidence in winning.

Apart from the two main contenders, three independent candidates and one nominee from a smaller party are also in the fray.

A total of 2,45,623 voters are eligible to vote in the constituency. Around 1,500 personnel, including nodal officers and micro observers, have been deployed to oversee the election process.

The counting of votes will take place on May 4.

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The late Govind Parmar had won the seat in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections by defeating NCP candidate Jayant Patel by more than 25,000 votes.