Polling for seven assembly seats in six Indian states began early Tuesday to fill the vacant seats.
Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Puthuppally in Kerala, Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Dumri in Jharkhand and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura state.
The vote count for all the seven seats will be held on September 8.
And, the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance are set for their mega face-off at today’s voting.
The bypolls are being generally viewed as the first litmus test for the newly formed opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A. The members of this grouping have resolved to contest elections together.
Significance of Bypolls
The Ghosi assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after Dara Singh Chauhan resigned as the legislator from Samajwadi Party (SP) and joined BJP. With this, the bypoll for the assembly seat is a direct contest between the SP and the BJP.
The BJP has fielded Chauhan for the bypoll while SP has pitched Sudhakar Singh against him. Uttar Pradesh State Chief Yogi Adityanath as well as Deputy State Chiefs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned for Chauhan.
Singh has been backed by the Congress and Left parties, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has not fielded any candidate.
However, the result of by-election will have no bearing on the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh state government, since it enjoys a comfortable majority in the state assembly. But it is seen as a preliminary test before the crucial 2024 general elections.
Assembly Seat
Meanwhile, the Dhupguri assembly seat in West Bengal fell vacant after the death of BJP’s Bishnu Pada Ray who had won the elections in 2021 by defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Mitali Roy.
The bypoll for the Dhupguri seat will witness a three-way contest between the BJP, TMC, and Congress-Left alliance in the state.
The BJP has fielded Tapasi Roy, the widow of CRPF jawan Jagannath Roy, who laid down his life in the line of duty in Jammu and Kashmir in 2021 while TMC has fielded Nirmal Chandra Roy (a professor by profession) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has fielded Ishwar Chandra Roy (a teacher by profession) who also has support of Congress.
The BJP has an edge as former TMC lawmaker Mitali Roy recently joined the party while with the Congress supporting the CPI(M) against the TMC, the bypoll will see a contest among I.N.D.I.A. bloc members.
The victory in the bypoll will be crucial for the BJP as it will look forward to strengthen its base in the state where it performed extremely well in the assembly polls held in 2021 by winning 77 seats as compared with just three in the previous elections in 2016.
In Tripura, the bypoll will be a direct contest between the ruling BJP and CPI(M) as the Congress and the Tipra Motha have not fielded candidates in Dhanpur as well as Boxanagar.
Dhanpur assembly seat
The bypoll for the Dhanpur assembly seat were necessitated as federal Minister Pratima Bhoumik resigned as legislator to retain her parliamentary seat.
The BJP has fielded Bindu Debnath, while CPI(M) has contested Koushik Chandra.
Whereas in Boxanagar, the bypoll was necessitated after the death of CPI(M) lawmaker Samsol Haque, who was the son of Mizan Hussain, who has been fielded by the CPI(M) against BJP’s Taffajal Hussain.
Notably, Taffajal Hussain had lost to Haque in the recently concluded state assembly polls.
Puthupally assembly seat
The Puthupally assembly seat in Kerala is up for grabs after the death of Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy who held the constituency for a record 53 years.
The bypoll will be witnessing a contest between Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Chandy Oommen (Oommen Chandy’s son), CPIM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Jack C Thomas and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Liginlal.
Bageshwar assembly seat
The bypoll for the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand is being held after the death of BJP lawmaker and state cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das.
The contest in Uttarakhand is between the BJP and Congress. However, Samajwadi Party has also fielded its candidate along with contenders from Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and Uttarakhand Parivartan Party.
The BJP has fielded Das’s wife Pravati Das while Congress’ Basant Kumar, SP’s Bhagvati Prasad, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal’s Arjun Dev and Uttarakhand Parivartan Party’s Bhagwat Kohli will be contesting against her.
Das has triumphantly held on to the Bageshwar assembly seat since 2007 and won against the Congress candidate in 2022 by more than 12,000 votes.
Dumri assembly seat
The bypoll for the Dumri assembly seat in Jharkhand is being held after the state cabinet minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Jagannath Mahto died.
All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) candidate Yashoda Devi who has the support of BJP will be contesting against I.N.D.I.A. bloc candidate Bebi Devi (wife of Jagannath Mahto) while All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded Abdul Mobin Rizvi.