Guwahati: Voting for seven empty Assembly seats in the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh began on Thursday morning.
Voting is taking place from 7 am to 6 pm under strict security, and the results will be tallied on November 6.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is engaged in a hard battle with regional parties including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the Assembly byelections in seven constituencies spread across six states.
The seven Assembly districts up for election are 139-Gola Gokranath in Uttar Pradesh, 166-Andheri East in Maharashtra, 47-Adampur in Haryana, 93-Munugode in Telangana, and 46-Dhamnagar in Odisha.
The 178-Mokama and 101-Gopalganj constituencies in Bihar are the two where bye-elections are being held.
Anant Kumar Singh of the Mokama Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was disqualified in July following his conviction in a case, and Subhash Singh of the BJP, who held the Gopalganj seat, passed away in August.
Due to the passing of their respective legislators, the seats in the Andheri East, Gola Gokrannath, and Dhamnagar constituencies were also left empty.
Ramesh Latke of the Shiv Sena died in May, and Arvind Giri and Bishnu Sethi of the BJP died in September.
The resignations of Kuldeep Bishnoi in Haryana and K Rajagopal Reddy in Telangana respectively resulted in vacancies in the Adampur and Munugode segments.
All of the major parties in Telangana, including the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress, are competing in the Munugode Assembly constituency.
While there are 47 candidates running, attention is focused on Raj Gopal Reddy of the BJP, Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the TRS, and Palvai Sravanthi of the Congress.
Rutuja Latke, the wife of the incumbent Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, whose passing in May prompted the election, has been nominated by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena party to run in Andheri East.
Murji Patel was put forward by the BJP, however he later withdrew after the party chose not to run.
This would be the first election following Eknath Shinde and 39 other Shiv Sena lawmakers’ revolt, which caused the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) administration, which was led by Uddhav Thackeray, to fall.
In the by-election for Mokama, the BJP has Sonam Devi running against Neelam Devi of the RJD, whose husband Anant Singh’s disqualification forced the by-election.
Anant Singh is claimed to have made Mokama his stronghold since 2005. He twice won the seat on two JD(U) tickets.
The wife of current BJP MLA Subhash Singh, Kusum Devi, has been handed the ticket by the BJP, while Mohan Prasad Gupta has been nominated by the RJD for the Goapalgunj by-election.
The Indian National Lok Dal, BJP, Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party are vying for the Adampur seat in Haryana (AAP).
Bhavya Bishnoi, a BJP candidate, is running in the byelection as Kuldeep Bishnoi’s son.
While the INLD chose Congress rebel Kurda Ram Nambardar as its candidate, the Congress fielded former Union minister Jai Prakash. The candidate for AAP is Satender Singh.
Kuldeep Bishnoi, the son of Chaudhary Bhajan Lal, the former chief minister of Haryana, recently left the Congress and joined the BJP. Kuldeep Bishnoi’s resignation left Adampur’s seat open. The Adampur seat is regarded as a Bishnoi stronghold.
AAP is attempting to gain a presence in Haryana while eyeing the byelection in Adampur and the Panchayat and Zila Parishad elections.
In the by-elections for the Gola Gokarannath assembly seat, his son Aman Giri is running for the BJP, while Vinay Tiwari, a former MLA, is running for the Samajwadi Party (SP).
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.