Bypoll to Uttarakhand's Salt Assembly seat begins

Bypoll to the Salt Assembly seat in Uttarakhand's Almora district began Saturday morning with people queuing up outside polling booths to cast their votes.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful polling in the constituency, Almora District Magistrate Nitin Singh Bhadauria said.

Polling began at 7 am and will go on till 5 pm, he said.

The bypoll to the seat was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MLA Surendra Singh Jeena due to Covid-19 in November last year.

The BJP has fielded his elder brother Mahesh Jeena from the seat against Congress' Ganga Pancholi.

There are 95,241 voters in the Salt assembly constituency, out of which 48,682 are male and 46,559 female.