New Delhi: The counting of votes for the 13 legislative assembly seats spread across seven states began on Saturday morning.
Polling took place on July 10 for the assembly seats in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh.
The Election Commission held the by-elections in one seat of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh, two seats of Uttarakhand, three seats of Himachal Pradesh, and four seats of Uttarakhand.
The constituencies included Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala in West Bengal; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP and the Congress are locked in a straight fight on most of the seats while TMC and DMK are also in the fray.
A voter turnout between 63 per cent and 75 per cent was recorded in the bypolls in three assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh.
In Himachal Pradesh, a total of 15 candidates, including Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife, Kamlesh Thakur, are in the fray for the by-polls to be held in three segments — Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh.
The bypolls in Himachal Pradesh were held in the Dehra seat due to the resignation of MLA Hoshyar Singh, in Hamirpur due to the resignation of MLA Ashish Sharma and in Nalagarh due to the resignation of MLA KL Thakur.
The counting will also determine the fate of Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who was fielded by the Congress in Dehra. The grand old party repeated Pushpinder Verma in Hamirpur, and gave a ticket to Hardeep Singh Baba in Nalagarh.
West Bengal witnessed a voter turnout of 62.71 per cent in the bypolls to four assembly constituencies.
The bypolls in West Bengal were necessitated as Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah, and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin gave up their seats to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
While the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool is aiming to sustain the dominance it achieved in the recent parliamentary elections, where it secured 29 out of 42 seats in Bengal, the BJP is seeking a rebound after its Lok Sabha seat count dropped from 18 in 2019 to 12.
Uttarakhand witnessed an outbreak of violence in the Manglaur assembly constituency, which left four people injured. Despite this, a high polling percentage of 67.28 per cent was recorded in the constituency.
The Badrinath bypoll was contested between BJP’s Rajendra Bhandari and Congress newcomer Lakhpat Singh Butola.
In Bihar, more than 57 per cent of over three lakh voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll to the Rupauli assembly seat.
The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for JD(U) several times in the past but quit the party recently to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket.
Polling was also held for the Amarwara (ST) assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, with a voter turnout of 78.71 per cent. The seat fell vacant after three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah switched to the BJP in March.
The outcome is being closely watched by both the BJP and Congress, as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.
The Vikravandi assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu recorded a voter turnout of 82.48 per cent. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of DMK legislator N Pughazhendhi.
A total of 29 candidates are in the fray, with the ruling DMK’s candidate Anniyur Siva (alias Sivashanmugam A) pitted against PMK’s C Anbumani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s K Abinaya.
In Punjab, a 55 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll.
The constituency saw a multi-cornered contest among the ruling AAP, the BJP and Congress. The seat fell vacant after AAP legislator Sheetal Angural jumped ship to the BJP