Bypolls are underway for three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats in six states, while the counting of votes will take place on June 26. Elections are going to be held on three Lok Sabha seats, Azamgarh and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and Sangrur in Punjab. The seven assembly seats are Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, Mandar in Jharkhand, Atmakur in Andhra Pradesh and Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma and Jabarajnagar in Tripura.
Sangrur, Azamgarh and Rampur are among the three major seats where voting is being held. In Sangrur, the seat that fell vacant after Bhagwant Mann became the chief minister, the AAP has fielded Gurmel Singh, while the Congress has fielded Dalveer Singh Goldie and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) only Dhillon. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded its chief Simranjit Singh Mann against Kamaldeep Kaur of Shiromani Akali Dal. Kaur is the sister of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh murder case convict Balwant Singh Rajoana.
In Azamgarh, vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, there is a contest between Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav, BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali. Khan’s loyalist Asim Raza is pitted against BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi in Azam Khan’s former constituency Rampur. Congress is not contesting elections.
Here are other updates related to the bypolls:
Sangrur: The polling began at 8 am amid tight security and will continue till 6 pm, officials said. and 44 from the transgender community – in the Sangrur parliamentary constituency.
A total of 16 candidates, including three women, are in the fray. The bypolls are being held at a time when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is facing the heat of the opposition over the law and order issue and the killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.
Azamgarh and Rampur: Over 35 lakh people are eligible to vote in the bypolls and will decide the fate of 19 candidates. The office of the Chief Electoral Officer said that the polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.
According to an official statement issued here by Election The commission, two general and several expenditure observers, have been appointed to oversee the election. Apart from this, 291 Sector Magistrates, 40 Zonal Magistrates and 433 Micro-observers have also been deputed.
Adequate number of central and state forces have been deployed to ensure security and peaceful polling. The responsibility of security of EVMs and strongrooms has been given to the central forces. According to officials, 13 candidates are in the fray from Azamgarh, where 18.38 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes. Six candidates are contesting from Rampur, which has 17.06 lakh voters.
Out of 18.38 lakh voters in Azamgarh, 9,70,249 are males, 8,67,942 are females and 36 are third gender. Officials said 2,176 booths have been set up at 1,149 polling stations in the constituency, where an estimated 15 per cent of the residents are Muslims. The SP had won the recently held assembly elections in all the four assembly constituencies that fall in this Lok Sabha seat—Azamgarh, Mubarakpur, Sagdi, Gopalpur and Mehnagar. There was an alliance between SP and BSP during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and Akhilesh Yadav Dinesh Lal Yadav of BJP won easily by getting 6.21 lakh votes against Nirhua who got 3.61 lakh votes.
Rajinder Nagar in Delhi: Voting began on Thursday morning for Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar bypoll in what is largely seen as a battle between a confident AAP and a spirited BJP for the crucial assembly constituency. A total of 1,64,698 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-election, with 14 candidates in the fray, with water scarcity and the city government’s liquor policy being the major election issues.
The two main contenders – AAP and BJP – have expressed confidence that their candidates will win the bypolls by a huge margin. Voting began at 7 am amid tight security and will continue till 6 pm.
Jharkhand: Voting for the by-election began at 7 am amid tight security arrangements in the Mandar assembly seat of Jharkhand’s Ranchi district. Polling is taking place in 433 polling stations, out of which 141 polling stations have been declared as hypersensitive, 218 as sensitive and 55 as sensitive, he said, adding that polling will continue till 4 pm.
Over 3.54 lakh voters, including 1.75 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of 14 candidates in the bypolls. Counting of votes will take place on June 26. Over 3,000 security personnel including Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP), CRPF and SSB have been deployed.
The by-election was necessitated following the disqualification of Bandhu Tirkey as an MLA after being convicted in a corruption case. The Congress has fielded the brothers’ daughter Shilpa Neha Tirkey as the common candidate of the JMM-led alliance, while the BJP has fielded former MLA Gangotri Kujur from the seat.
Independent candidate Dev Kumar Dhan, with support from Asaduddin Owaisi’s Alla India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is also in the fray.
Tripura: Bypolls to four assembly seats in Tripura have begun amid tight security arrangements, an election official said. Polling is being held in 221 booths in Agartala, Town Bardowali, Soorma and Jubarajnagar seats and will continue till 5 pm.
Apart from Tripura State Rifles (TSR), a total of 25 companies of central forces have been deployed. At least 1,89,032 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of 25 candidates.
Bypolls in Agartala and Town Bardowali constituencies were necessitated after Sudip Roy Burman and Ashish Saha resigned as BJP MLAs and joined the Congress in February. The Soorma seat in Dhalai district fell vacant after BJP MLA Ashish Das was disqualified by Speaker Ratan Chakraborty and a by-poll to Jubrajnagar was held after the death of CPI(M) MLA Ramendra Chandra Devnath.
Chief Minister Manik Saha, who is not a member of the Legislative Assembly, is contesting against Congress candidate Ashish Saha from Town Bardowali constituency. The Trinamool Congress and the Left Front have fielded candidates on all four seats. Counting of votes will take place on June 26.
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