New Delhi:
Four Lok Sabha seats and 10 assembly constituencies are voting today in the crucial by-elections in 10 states. Among the Lok Sabha seats is the politically important Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh where opposition parties are putting up a show of unity to take on the BJP in the run up to the general elections next year. Bypolls are being held in Maharashtra’s Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary constituencies and the Nagaland seat. The Kairana seat fell vacant water the death of its BJP lawmaker Hukum Singh. His daughter is contesting against a wife of a politician who represented the seat earlier. Begum Tabassum Hasan, contesting on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket, is backed by several opposition parties including the Congress. The votes will be counted for all seats on Thursday.
Here is your 10-point cheatsheet to the by-elections in 10 states:
- In Kairana, the BJP has fielded Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka Singh to take on Tabassum Hasanwho has been propped as the opposition candidate. Ms Hasan was earlier with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, then moved to the Samajwadi Party before joining Ajit Singh’s RLD. Her late husband Munnawar Hasan has represented the seat earlier. Kairana’s biggest polling station is seeing a sluggish pace of voting after over 10 voting machines stopped working.
- Out of the 16 lakh voters in Kairana, nearly five lakh of them are Muslim. The opposition has gone all out to recreate its successes in the bypolls to Gorakhpur and Phulpur, seats earlier held by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The opposition is also eyeing the chunk of Jat voters, who have traditionally voted for Ajit Singh’s RLD but had drifted to the BJP in 2014.
- Faced with the opposition onslaught, the BJP is keen on keeping the seat that Hukum Singh won with over 50 per cent of the vote share. The chief minister, his deputy and some of the top ministers have campaigned relentlessly.
- On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a public meeting close to the Kairana constituency while inaugurating an expressway and spoke of issues concerning sugarcane farmers and law and order that the opposition alleges is a breach of the model code of conduct.
- Bypoll to Palghar Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra has added further tension to the already strained ties between the Shiv Sena and the BJP. After the Shiv Sena gave a ticket to the son of a sitting BJP lawmaker who died earlier this year, the BJP fielded former Congress minister Rajendra Gavit who joined the party earlier this month.
- By-election to the reserved Bhandara-Gondiya seat is taking place after the sitting BJP parliamentarian Nana Patole resigned and joined the Congress. The BJP has fielded its former lawmaker Hemant Patle versus NCP’s Madhukar Kukde who is also supported by the Congress.
- The Nagaland assembly seat fell vacant after Neiphiu Rio resigned and became chief minister. His Nationalist Democratic People’s Party (NDPP) partnered with the BJP to form a government earlier this year. In today’s bypoll, it’s a direct contest between the two regional fronts, one backed by the BJP and the other, backed by the Congress.
- The Congress is hoping to win the central Kerala assembly seat of Chengannur, where it’s the Left that usually gets the voters’ backing. The BJP too is hoping to perform better in Chengannur than it did in the 2016 state elections.
- In Bihar’s Jokihat, the bypoll is being seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as sitting JD(U) lawmaker Sarfaraz Alam quit the party and joined the RJD after Mr Kumar joined hands with the BJP last year. After Mr Alam won the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll earlier this year, the RJD has fielded his younger brother to taken on JD(U)’s Murshid Alam.
- Bypolls in Ampati assembly seat in Meghalaya’s Garo hills is a battle between the ruling National People’s Party(NPP)-led alliance led by Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and the Congress led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. Speaking to NDTV.
- Source: NDTV
