NEW DELHI: Voting is underway in the bye-elections for 31 Assembly seats across 10 states, as well as the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, from where Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut.
Interestingly, though these bypolls will not have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana Assembly polls.
Along with Wayanad, seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Meghalaya will also witness the bypoll contest. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Though polling was also scheduled for two seats in Sikkim -- Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) nominees Aditya Golay and Satish Chandra Rai have already been declared unopposed after their rivals withdrew from the race.
In Kerala, the Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Raebareli parliamentary constituency which he kept.
Priyanka Gandhi, pitted against Left Democratic Front's (LDF) Sathyan Mokeri, BJP's Navya Haridas, and 13 others in Wayanad, faces a key test -- not only to hold onto the party's stronghold but also to widen the victory margin her brother, Rahul Gandhi, achieved in the last two elections. The other seat going to bypolls is Chelakkara in Thrissur district.
In Rajasthan, bypolls are being held in Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar, and Ramgarh. In Salumbar and Ramgarh, the bye-elections were necessitated due to the demise of the sitting MLAs -- Amritlal Meena (BJP) and Zubair Khan (Congress) respectively.
In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) had won five of the six seats -- Taldangra, Sitai (SC), Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, and Madarihat -- in the 2021 Assembly polls. The Madarihat seat was held by the BJP.
In Assam, a total of 34 candidates are in the fray in the state for the five seats going to bypolls -- Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon, and Sidli. The INDIA bloc could not build on a consensus in deciding the candidate for Behali with the Congress deciding to field its candidate at the last moment, disagreeing with the alliance's resolution to give the seat to CPI(ML) Liberation. Apart from Jayanta Borah (Congress) and Diganta Ghatowal (BJP), Lakhikanta Kurmi from CPI(ML) Liberation as a united opposition candidate and Ananta Gogoi from AAP are also in the fray in Behali.
In Bihar, bypolls are being held in the Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj, and Belaganj seats.
In Karnataka, JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha. The BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's son, Bharath Bommai, from Shiggaon. He will face Congress candidate Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan. Bypolls will also be held in Sandur in the state.
In Madhya Pradesh, voting will also be held in Budhni and Vijaypur Assembly seats in the state.
The bypoll to Vijaypur seat in Sheopur district was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was made Minister in the Mohan Yadav Cabinet.
The bypoll to Budhni seat is being held since MLA and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha and is now Union Agriculture Minister.
The counting of votes for bypolls in all the states across the country is scheduled for November 23.