Voting For Bypolls Begins In 51 Assembly Seats, 2 Lok Sabha Seats

New Delhi: The voting for bypolls to 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states has begun.

In Madhya Pradesh where bypoll is being held for Jhabua Assembly seat, the voting, which started at 7 am across 356 booths, will end at 5 pm, an official said.

The main contestants for the bypoll are senior Congress leader Kantilal Bhuria and BJP's Bhanu Bhuria, who is making his electoral debut.

Voting for the bypolls to 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh began on Monday morning amid tight security.

Eight of the 11 seats were held earlier by the BJP and one by BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). The seats of Rampur and Jalalpur (Ambedkarnagar) were held by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, respectively.

The BJP, BSP, SP and the Congress have fielded their candidates on all the seats.

According to the office of UP's Chief Electoral Officer, 109 candidates are in the fray for the bypolls to the Assembly seats of Gangoh, Rampur, Iglas (SC), Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar, Manikpur, Pratapgarh, Zaidpur (SC), Jalalpur, Balha (SC) and Ghosi.

Polling for the bypolls to four assembly seats in Punjab began on Monday morning. The four assembly seats where the bypolls will be held include Phagwara (reserve), Jalalabad, Dakha and Mukerian.

Around 7.76 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 33 candidates. The results of the elections will be declared on October 24.
Braving heavy rains, early voters queued up at polling stations in the five assembly constituencies in Kerala on Monday where bypolls are being held, to cast their franchise. A total of 9.57 lakh voters are expected to participate in the bypolls being held in Vattiyoorkavu (Thiruvananthapuram), Aroor (Alapuzha), Konni (Pathnamthitta), Ernakulam and Manjeshwaram (Kasaragod).

A total of 896 polling stations have been set up in the constituencies.

Polling in Mandawa and Khivsar assembly constituencies in Rajasthan began at 7 a.m. on Monday amid tight security arrangements. The by-elections on both the seats are being held after Khivsar (Nagaur) MLA Hanuman Beniwal and Mandawa (Jhunjhunu) MLA Narendra Kumar were elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year.

Voting for bypolls in six Assembly constituencies of Gujarat began on Monday morning. The by-elections are being held in Tharad, Radhanpur, Kheralu, Bayad, Amraiwadi and Lunawada seats, where voting began at 8 am and will end at 6 pm, a poll official said.

A total of 42 candidates are in the fray for the bypolls, which are being viewed as a battle of prestige for Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, as four of these six seats were held by the ruling BJP.

Voting for the bypoll to Naxal-affected Chitrakot Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh began on Monday morning amid heavy security.

Six candidates are in the fray from the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, where the by-election was necessitated after Congress MLA Deepak Baij got elected to the Lok Sabha from Bastar parliamentary constituency.

Amid tight security, polling began in two Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one segment in neighbouring Puducherry as voters turned up enthusiastically to cast their votes early in the day.

DMK's N Pugazhendhi is contesting from Vikravandi constituency and its ally Congress party's nominee 'Ruby' Manoharan is testing his luck from Nanguneri.

In Puducherry's Kamaraj Nagar too voting is going on peacefully where the ruling Congress party's A John Kumar and the Opposition AINRC nominee S Bhuvaneswarane are locked in a direct fight.

Polling for Pachhad and Dharamshala assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh has begun on Monday, a state election official said.

As many as 82,137 and 74,487 voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise in Dharamshala and Pachhad respectively, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Rupali Thakur said.

Polling was underway on Monday in the crucial by-election to Huzurnagar Assembly constituency in Suryapet district of Telangana where the ruling TRS, Congress, TDP and BJP are locked in a multi-cornered contest.

The bypoll, the first after last year's Assembly elections in Telangana, has been necessitated due to the resignation of state Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy following his election to Lok Sabha in the general elections.