Assembly Bypoll Results: As the vote counting progresses, the Congress has secured leads in several constituencies across different states.
In Himachal Pradesh, Congress is ahead in the Nalagarh and Dehra seats, with Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, leading in Nalagarh with 6,115 votes as of 11 am.
Meanwhile, in Uttarakhand, Congress is leading the Badrinath and Manglaur seats. Additionally, in Madhya Pradesh’s Awarwara seat, Dheeran Invati of Congress is leading with 4,541 votes.
In contrast, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ashish Sharma is leading in the Hamirpur constituency of Himachal Pradesh with a margin of 743 votes.
In the ongoing tallying of votes for the 13 legislative assembly seats across seven states, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has taken the lead in all four seats in West Bengal, notably with Krishna Kalyani leading by over 28,000 votes in Raiganj.
In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Mohinder Bhagat has secured victory in the Jalandhar West seat.
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Meanwhile, JDU’s Kaladhar Mandal is leading in Bihar’s Rupauli seat, and the DMK is ahead in Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi seat. The polling for these seats was conducted on July 10 across Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh, with the counting starting on Saturday morning.
The Election Commission conducted by-elections in various constituencies across several states. These included Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala in West Bengal; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.
Most seats saw a direct contest between the BJP and Congress, with the TMC and DMK also participating in certain constituencies. In Himachal Pradesh, the bypolls were necessitated by the resignation of MLAs Hoshyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), and KL Thakur (Nalagarh).
In the bypolls held in West Bengal, a voter turnout of 62.71 per cent was reported across four assembly constituencies. These bypolls were necessitated as Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj, Biswajit Das from Bagdah, and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin vacated their seats to contest in the Lok Sabha elections earlier.
Also Read: Bypolls Highlights: MP’s Amarwara records highest turnout, Uttarakhand’s Badrinath lowest at 40%
The TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee, aims to maintain its dominance following the recent parliamentary elections where it won 29 out of 42 seats in Bengal. Meanwhile, the BJP is looking to regain ground after seeing a decrease in its Lok Sabha seats from 18 in 2019 to 12.
In Uttarakhand, despite incidents of violence in the Manglaur assembly constituency resulting in injuries to four people, a substantial voter turnout of 67.28 per cent was recorded. The bypoll in Badrinath saw a contest between BJP’s Rajendra Bhandari and Congress newcomer Lakhpat Singh Butola.
In Bihar, over three lakh voters saw a turnout of more than 57 percent in the bypoll for the Rupauli assembly seat. The bypoll was triggered by the resignation of MLA Bima Bharti, who had previously won the seat for JD(U) but left the party to contest in the Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket.
Meanwhile, polling was conducted for the Amarwara (ST) assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara, recording a high voter turnout of 78.71 percent. This seat became vacant when three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah switched allegiance to the BJP in March.
The results of these bypolls are closely monitored by both the BJP and Congress, particularly in Chhindwara, which was long considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath.
In Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi assembly constituency, a high voter turnout of 82.48 percent was recorded in the bypoll, which was necessitated by the demise of DMK legislator N Pughazhendhi. 29 candidates are contesting, with DMK’s candidate Anniyur Siva (alias Sivashanmugam A) facing off against PMK’s C Anbumani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s K Abinaya.
Meanwhile, in Punjab’s Jalandhar West assembly bypoll, a voter turnout of 55 percent was reported. The seat was vacated after AAP legislator Sheetal Angural switched to the BJP, setting the stage for a competitive contest among AAP, BJP, and Congress candidates.