The counting of votes for the Assembly bypolls held in July 10th in 13 constituencies across seven states is underway with results expected by Saturday evening.
Assembly by-polls were held in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Out of the 13 seats which went to polls two each had been with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Trinamool Congress but one seat each had been with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The rest three were under Independents.
Bihar
Voter turnout in Rupauli assembly constituency by-elections held in Purnea district of Bihar was recorded at 52.75%.
Due to resignation from the sitting MLA Bima Bharti who had won it several times on JD(U) ticket but recently quit the party to contest Lok Sabha election as an RJD candidate following her loss in parliamentary election; she contested this time again as an RJD candidate. Now RJD hopes that she would win this seat.
A total of 11 candidates contested the bye-election in which JD(U) had fielded Kaladhar Prasad Mandal who had fought Assembly polls from this seat as independent candidate during elections held earlier in 2020.
West Bengal
Maniktala, Bagdah, Ranaghat Dakshin and Raiganj Assembly seats witnessed by-polls on July 10th for West Bengal. The highest voting percentage was registered at Raiganj at 71.99%, followed by Ranaghat Dakshin at 70.56%, Bagda at 68.44% and Maniktala at 54.98%.
Madhya Pradesh
An official said that on Wednesday, a percentage of 78.71% was recorded during the by-election for Amarwara which is a Scheduled Tribe reserved constituency of Chhindwara district.
There are nine candidates including those representing BJP, Congress and Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) who will fight it out in the twenty rounds of counting. The by-election was prestigious for both ruling BJP and opposition Congress as this Scheduled Tribes reserved seat in Chhindwara district is considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.
Congress won Amarwara seat in 2023 assembly elections but BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu defeated Nath’s son Nakul Nath to win the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat this time. A three-time MLA from the Congress party, Kamlesh Shah, defected to the BJP last month thereby necessitating an Assembly byelection.
Uttarakhand
Manglaur and Badrinath constituencies voted on July 10th in Uttarakhand. While Manglaur witnessed violence that resulted into injurying four persons only 67.28% turnout was recorded at the polling booth. In Badrinath however there was peaceful voting with a voter turnout of 47.68%.
BSP fielded Qazi Nizamuddin against Ubedur Rehman, son of sitting BSP MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari in Manglaur. Also contesting for Manglaur were Gujjar leader and BJP candidate Kartar Singh Bhadana belonging to either of two sides (Muslim/Dalit) communities dominated by either BSP or Congress.
In Badrinath, Rajendra Bhandari contested as a BJP candidate with Lakhpat Singh Butola making his debut under congress ticket.
Punjab
In Jalandhar the West Assembly seat polling was held only and had a turnout of 54.98% as opposed to the 67% it got in the assembly segment in the state elections.
Major political parties including Congress, BJP and ruling party AAP are fighting for this seat amidst many contestants numbering to fifteen candidates challenger.
The seat fell vacant after Angural became a member of BJP from AAP in March.
For this bypoll, AAP has nominated Mohinder Bhagat who is son of former minister and former MLA of Bhagat Chunni Lal associated with BJP while Surinder Kaur, a former senior deputy mayor and four-time councilor joined the congress party; on other hand Sheetal Angural from BJP contested who had become victorious in assembly elections of Punjab representing AAP at that time.
However, Shiromani Akali Dal had fielded Surjit Kaur for the bypoll but later on it withdrew its support and disowned her thereby leaving her unopposed.
Himachal Pradesh
Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh Assembly constituencies went to polls on July 10th.
Around thirteen contestants namely those belonging to BJP or Congress are contesting these seats. The highest polling percentage among them was recorded in voting for Nalagerh constituency which stood at 79.04%, next was Hamirpur (67.72%) and Dehra (65.42%).
Data from state election department showed that overall voting percentage during all three by-polls was 71%. These three seats were left vacant after three independent members Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh) resigned from their respective positions as members of legislative assembly on March 22nd having voted for Bharatiya Janata Party during Rajya Sabha Polls held on February 27th , and joined the party on March 23, 2022.
However, the Speaker of the Assembly accepted their resignation on June 3rd resulting in a declaration of vacancies in these seats which have to be filled through bye-elections.
The BJP made all its ex-MLAs candidates from their respective seats. The Congress fielded Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu from Dehra, repeated its candidate Pushpinder Verma from Hamirpur and gave ticket to five-time Indian National Trade Union Congress president, Himachal Pradesh unit, Hardeep Singh Baba, from Nalagarh.
Tamil Nadu
The percentage of polling recorded for the Vikravandi Assembly constituency byelection held at Villupuram district is 82.48%. Except for a clash between PMK workers and security personnel and an attack by knife on one female voter rest of voting was peaceful.
There are as many as 29 contenders including DMK nominee Anniyur Siva or PMK’s C. Anbumani or Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Abinaya Ponnivalavan whose electoral fortunes would be known only after Saturday evening when final result of bypoll would be declared.
This by-poll witnessed a massive voter turnout of 82.48% with as many as one lakh ninety five thousand four hundred ninety-five voters exercising their franchise at the hustings.
