Bypolls in 7 Assembly seats underway; high-stake electoral contest in 6 States

New Delhi: By-elections for seven Assembly constituencies across the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are being held amid tight security on Thursday. The voting in these states began at 7 AM and will continue till 6 PM, and the counting of votes will be conducted on November 6. The seven Assembly constituencies where the elections will take place are 166-Andheri East from Maharashtra, 47-Adampur from Haryana, 93-Munugode from Telangana, 139-Gola Gokranath from Uttar Pradesh and 46-Dhamnagar from Odisha.

Bihar

The two constituencies of Bihar where the bye-elections will be conducted are 178-Mokama and 101-Gopalganj. Mokama Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Anant Kumar Singh was disqualified in July after his conviction in a case, while BJP`s Subhash Singh, who held the Gopalganj seat, passed away in August. For the Mokama bypolls, the BJP has fielded Sonam Devi p against RJD`s Neelam Devi, whose husband Anant Singh`s disqualification has necessitated the by-election. Mokama is said to be the stronghold of Anant Singh since 2005. He won the seat twice on JD(U) tickets. BJP has given the ticket to Kusum Devi, the wife of incumbent BJP MLA Subhash Singh while RJD has fielded Mohan Prasad Gupta for Goapalgunj by-election. Haryana`s Adampur seat is witnessing the contest between BJP, Congress, Indian National Lok Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Maharashtra

The Andheri East, Gola Gokrannath and Dhamnagar constituencies, too, fell vacant due to the demise of their respective legislators. The Shiv Sena`s Ramesh Latke died in May and BJP`s Arvind Giri and Bishnu Sethi both passed away in September. In Andheri East, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction has fielded Rutuja Latke, the wife of incumbent Sena MLA Ramesh Latke whose death in May necessitated the poll. The BJP fielded Murji Patel, but he later withdrew his candidature after the party decided not to contest. This will the first election after the revolt in the Shiv Sena by Eknath Shinde and 39 other legislators which led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Haryana

In Haryana, the resignation of Kuldeep Bishnoi, and K Rajagopal Reddy in Telangana, led to vacancies in the Adampur and Munugode segments respectively. Kuldeep Bishnoi`s son Bhavya is contesting the bypoll as the BJP candidate. The Congress has fielded former Union minister Jai Prakash while the INLD picked Congress rebel Kurda Ram Nambardar as its candidate. Satender Singh is AAP`s candidate. Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of the former Chief Minister of Haryana, Chaudhary Bhajan Lal, recently resigned from Congress and joined the BJP. Adampur`s seat fell vacant after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned. Adampur seat is considered a stronghold of Bishnoi.

Meanwhile, eyeing the bypoll in Adampur, Panchayat and Zila Parishad elections, AAP is trying to get a foothold in Haryana. 

Uttar Pradesh

Bypolls to the Gola Gokarannath assembly constituency: The BJP has fielded his son Aman Giri while the Samajwadi Party (SP) has given a ticket to former MLA Vinay Tiwari.

Telangana

The contest in Telangana`s Munugode Assembly constituency is crucial for all major parties in the State- the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. As many as 298 polling stations have been set for the Munugode by-election and 2,41,855 voters will cast their vote. While 47 candidates are in the fray, the eye is on BJP`s Raj Gopal Reddy, former TRS MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress` Palvai Sravanthi.

Odisha

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has fielded Abanti Das for Odisha`s Dhamnagar bypolls while the BJP has fielded Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajana the son of Bishnu Sethi, BJP MLA after whose death, the assembly seat fell vacant, as its candidate for the by-election.

The AAP is also in the fray and has given a ticket to Anwar Sheikh. The election body has instructed the authorities to monitor the COVID situation in the respective states and adhere to COVID-appropriate behaviour during the conduct of the elections.