Bypolls begins for 51 Assembly, 2 LS seats across 18 States

Almost 30 seats among this are currently held by the Saffron Party i.e., BJP, 12 by Congress and the remaining by other regional parties. 

Anab Mehdi
Published on: 21 Oct 2019 3:57 AM GMT
Bypolls begins for 51 Assembly, 2 LS seats across 18 States
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Lucknow: Voting has begun for 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies across 17 states and one union territory.

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Almost 30 seats among this are currently held by the Saffron Party i.e., BJP, 12 by Congress and the remaining by other regional parties.

Uttar Pradesh is also witnessing bypolls in 11 assembly seats followed by six in Gujarat, five each in Bihar and Kerala, four each in Assam and Punjab, three in Sikkim, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Meghalaya and Telangana.

Apart from this, voting for the bypolls are on in the Satara and Samastipur Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and Bihar respectively.

In UP, BJP hopes to increase its strength in the legislative assembly by scoring a win in Rampur, held by the Samajwadi Party, and Jalalpur, which is currently with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Opposition parties, on contrary, want to repeat their success in the bypolls to the Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana Lok Sabha seats and Noorpur assembly constituency last year.

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Of the 11 seats in contention across the northern state, the BJP holds eight while the ninth, Pratapgarh, is held by its political ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). They are challenged by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and the Congress on all the seats.

While the Gujarat bypolls happens to be a prestige battle for Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, the bypolls to five assembly seats and a single Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar is being seen as the semifinals for the assembly elections due next year.

Apart from the tussle for the Samastipur Lok Sabha bypoll, necessitated by the death of Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan's brother Ramchandra Paswan, pitched electoral battles are expected to be witnessed in the state's Kishanganj, Nathnagar, Belhar, Simri Bakhtiyarpur and Daraunda assembly constituencies.

Three million voters across the eastern state will contribute in deciding the fate of 51 candidates.

As many as 33 candidates are also battling for four assembly seats across Punjab today, their fate decided by 7.68 lakh voters. The main players facing off in these bypolls are the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine.

Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang is contesting from Poklok Kamrang, one of the nine assembly constituencies where bypolls are being held across the northeast. He is required to be elected to the state assembly in order to continue heading the state cabinet.

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Anab Mehdi

Anab Mehdi

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