A turnout of 50% to over 81% was recorded on Saturday in bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats and 29 assembly seats spread across 13 States and one Union Territory, with Congress’ Pratibha Singh, wife of former Chief Minister Late Virbhadra Singh and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) Abhay Chautala among the prominent candidates in the fray.

Officials said that polling in all the States passed off peacefully and was held under COVID-19 protocol to ensure the safety of the voters as well as polling personnel.

The counting of votes to all the seats will take place on November 2.

While the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha constituency recorded 75.51% turnout as the voting concluded at 7 p.m., Haryana’s bypoll to the Ellenabad Assembly constituency saw around 81.39% voter, Election Commission officials said.

Election to this seat was necessitated after the death of seven-time independent MP Mohan Delkar whose wife Kalaben Delkar is contesting from Shiv Sena against BJP’s Mahesh Gavit and Congress’ Mahesh Dhodi.

The other two Lok Sabha seats where voting took place include Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

The Mandi Lok Sabha seat, where Congress’ Ms Singh is pitted against a Kargril war hero and BJP candidate, Khushal Singh Thakur, registered a relatively lower turnout of 49.83% till 5 p.m. The seat fell vacant after the death of Ramswaroop Sharma (BJP) in March.

Independent India’s first oter, 104-year-old Shyam Saran Negi, were among those who caste their votes in the bypoll to the Mandi Parlimentary seats.

The contest between the BJP and the Congress for the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh triggered a war of words between Chief Minister Shivrah Singh Chouhan and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath.

Besides the Lok Sabha seats, bypolls were held in three Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, five Assembly seats in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana.

Out of these, the BJP was holding around half a dozen seats, the Congress had nine, while the rest were with the regional parties.

Among the Assembly seats, the Ellenabad Assembly constituency in Haryana is a keenly followed contest as INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala seeking re-election after resigning from the seat this year to protest against the Centre’s farm laws.