Voting for Assembly by-elections in seven vacant seats across six states began on Thursday. Mokama and Gopalganj seats in Bihar, Andheri (East) in Maharashtra, Adampur in Haryana, Munugode in Telangana, Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar in Odisha are going to polls on Thursday.
The counting of votes will take place on November 6.
About the 7seats going to polls
The contest is said to be symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties. Among the seven seats where bypolls are being held, the BJP held three seats, the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had one each. Now, the BJP is seeking to retain Gola Gorakhnath seat in Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)-ruled Odisha. It has fielded the sons of sitting MLAs whose death necessitated the bypolls.
The Gola Gorakhnath seat in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri on September 6. With the BSP and the Congress keeping away from the bypolls, there seems to be a direct fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party The BJP has fielded Aman Giri, son of Arvind Giri, while the SP candidate is former Gola MLA Vinay Tiwari.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi’s death necessitated the by-poll in Odisha's Dhamnagar. The BJD has fielded Abanti Das, the lone woman among the total five candidates in Dhamnagar. The BJP, banking on sympathy votes, has fielded Sethi's son Suryabanshi Suraj. The BJD's official candidate is facing a rebel as its former MLA Rajendra Das is in the fray as an Independent.
The bypolls in Haryana’s Adampur were necessitated after Kuldeep Bishnoi had resigned as MLA and switched from the Congress to the BJP. Bishnoi’s son Bhavya is now contesting the bypolls as a BJP candidate. The BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are the key parties contesting the bypolls.
In Andheri (East) of Maharashtra, the BJP has pulled out of the race after the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray fielded the wife of its deceased MLA Ramesh Latke from the constituency. This is the first election in Maharashtra after the recent split in the Shiv Sena following a rebellion by Eknath Shinde.
The BJP and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — now called Bharat Rashtra Samithi — had been campaigning aggressively in Munugode in Telangana, where the Congress MLA had resigned and is fighting on the BJP's ticket.
Meanwhile, Bihar’s Mokama and Gopalganj by-elections will be the first electoral contest after the JD(U) severed ties with the BJP in August and again joined hands with the RJD. The seats were held by the RJD and the BJP respectively.
Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar had earlier urged voters of Mokama to support Neelam Devi, the RJD candidate and wife of his former protégé Anant Kumar Singh whose disqualification has necessitated the by-election.
Besides, the BJP has fielded Kusum Devi, the wife of deceased party MLA Subhash Singh, in Gopalganj. The RJD has fielded Mohan Gupta, while Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and fielded Indira Yadav, wife of Lalu Yadav’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav in Gopalganj bypolls.
Police deployment, webcasting
The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for polling, including the deployment of 3,366 state police and 15 companies of central security personnel in Munugode. Webcasting would be done from all the polling stations, officials said.
(With inputs from PTI, News 18)
.
