A voter turnout of over 30 %  was recorded till 1 p.m. on Saturday in the bypolls to one Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, an election official said.

The Mandi Lok Sabha seat recorded 26.89% voting, while a voter turnout of 27.85 to 33.19% was registered in the Arki, Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly seats in the first five hours of polling, he added.

Voting for the by-elections to Mandi Lok Sabha and Arki, Fatehpur, and Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly seats began at 8 am, they said.

The voter turnout in Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbal-Kotkhai was 33.19%, 27.85% and 32.58% respectively in the first five hours, he said. 

The voting began on a slow pace but is gaining momentum, an election official said.

A total of 12,99,756 voters for Mandi Lok Sabha, 87,222 for Fatehpur, 92,609 for Solan (Arki) and 70,965 voters for Jubbal-Kotkhai Vidhan Sabha seats may exercise their right to franchise till 6 pm.

According to officials, 2,484 polling stations and 312 auxiliary polling stations have been set up for bypolls.

The by-elections were necessitated following the death of sitting members.

Meanwhile, tight security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the by-elections.

State Chief Electoral Officer C Palrasu informed that 50 per cent of the polling stations will be connected through webcasting. This facility will be available in 1,383 of the total 2,796 polling stations, he added.

The counting of votes for all seats will be held on November 2.

A total of 18 candidates are in the fray, including 12 for the three assembly seats and six for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat.

A direct contest is expected between the ruling BJP and Congress on all seats except Jubbal-Kotkhai where rebel BJP candidate Chetan Singh Bragta is trying his luck as an independent candidate.

However, all eyes are on the Mandi parliamentary bypoll as the constituency is the home turf of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

The BJP has fielded Kargil war hero Brigadier Khushal Singh Thakur from Mandi against Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, the wife of late chief minister Virbhadra Singh.