Bypoll for Hamirpur, Dantewada, Pala and Bhadarghat Assembly constituencies on Monday

The bypoll for Hamirpur Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, Pala in Kerala and Bhadarghat in Tripura are scheduled to take place on Monday.  The process of filing nominations for these seats started from August 28 and ended on September 4. The last date for withdrawal of candidature was September 7. According to Election Commission, EVMs and WPATs will be used at all polling stations. The counting of the votes will take place on September 27.

The bypoll in Hamirpur has been necessitated following the disqualification of sitting BJP MLA Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel after he was convicted in a murder case. The prominent candidates who are in the fray from this seat are Yuvraj Singh (BJP), Hardeepak Nishad (Congress), Manoj Kumar Prajapati (SP), Naushad Ali (BSP) and Jamal Alam Mansoori (Communist Party of India).

In Chhattisgarh's Dantewada, a total of nine candidates are in the fray for the byelection. The Congress has fielded Devti Karma, wife of Congress leader Mahendra Karma who was killed by Naxals in 2013, while the BJP has given ticket to Ojaswi Mandavi, wife of Bhima Mandavi, who also lost his life in a Naxal attack. In 2018 Assembly polls, Bhima Mandavi had defeated Devti Karma by 2,172 votes. 

The by-election to Tripura's Badharghat was necessitated following the death of sitting BJP legislator Dilip Sarkar on April 1. Four candidates, including two women, are in the fray from this seat. Badharghat is set to witness a four-cornered fight between ruling BJP candidate Mimi Majumder, the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front nominee Bulti Biswas, Congress' Ratan Chandra Das and SUCI (C) contestant Mridul Kanti Sarkar.

The bypoll in pale has been necessitated due to the death of Kerala Congress-Mani founder KM Mani in April, who represented the constituency since 1967. Mani first won in 1965, but since no political front could cobble up a majority no government assumed office and the state was under President`s rule till fresh elections were held in 1967. Whoever wins the bye-election will go into the record books as this would be the first time since 1965 that there will be a new winner. The main contest on this seat is between Congress-led UDF and LDF.