KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress candidates have taken an early lead over their rivals in by-polls held in four assembly seats in West Bengal, where counting began on Saturday morning, TV channels reported.The bypolls for Maniktala, Bagdah, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Raiganj assembly seats were held on July 10.However, there was no official word from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, as the EC website showed counting in progress.Bengali news channel TV9 Bangla showed TMC leading in Maniktala in Kolkata, Ranaghat Dakshin, and Bagdah in North 24 Parganas, which are in South Bengal, and Raiganj in North Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district.Another news channel, ABP Ananda, also broadcasted similar trends.The BJP secured Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagdah seats in the 2021 assembly polls.The Raiganj seat was won by the saffron party in the last assembly elections.The Maniktala seat was secured by the TMC in 2021 but became vacant after former state minister Sadhan Pandey died in February 2022.TAMIL NADU: DMK takes early lead in VikravandiVIKRAVANDI: The DMK on Saturday took early lead in the Vikravandi Assembly constituency, where the counting of votes polled in the July 10 bypoll was underway.According to reports, DMK nominee Anniyur Siva was leading ahead of his nearest PMK rival, C Anbumani, by about 5,000 votes.Counting of votes began at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.The by-election was necessitated due to the death of DMK legislator N Pugazhenthi in April this year. The DMK-led alliance had won all 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry segment in the just concluded Parliamentary elections.Punjab: AAP candidate Bhagat leading from Jalandhar West seatCHANDIGARH: AAP candidate for the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll Mohinder Bhagat was leading against his nearest rival and Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, according to initial trends.Bhagat was ahead of Kaur by 6,336 votes after two rounds of counting of votes that began at 8 am at the Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women here. BJP candidate Sheetal Angural was at the third spot, according to the trends.The bypoll was necessitated after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Angural as the AAP legislator. He joined the BJP in March. Polling in the seat took place on Wednesday and a voter turnout of 54.98 per cent was recorded, a sharp drop from the 67 per cent the assembly segment saw in the 2022 state elections.Bihar: JD(U) candidate leading in Rupuli bypollPURNEA: JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal was leading by 2,433 votes over his nearest rival, an independent candidate, in the by-election to the Rupauli Assembly seat in Bihar’s Purnea district on Saturday, according to the election commission of India.After the first round of counting, the JD(U) candidate secured 6,588 votes, while independent candidate Shankar Singh got 4,155 votes, according to the latest information uploaded on the Election Commission’s website.RJD’s Bima Bharti is in the third position by securing 2,359 votes after the conclusion of the first round of counting.The counting of votes commenced at 8 am.The by-election was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who had won the seat for JD(U) several times but quit the party recently to contest the Lok Sabha election on an RJD ticket.Following her loss in the parliamentary election, she contested the bypoll as an RJD candidate.Madhya Pradesh: Counting of votes begins for Amarwara assembly bypollCHHINDWARA (MP): Counting of votes for the Amarwara bypoll in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh began on Saturday amid tight security arrangements, a poll official said.The counting of votes commenced at 8 am at the Government PG College Bhawan and is going on peacefully, the official said.After the third round, Kamlesh Pratap Shah of the BJP was leading by 4,160 votes over Congress’ Dheeran Shah Invati, he said.A turnout of 78.71 per cent was recorded in the bye election for the Scheduled Tribe-reserved constituency on Wednesday.The fate of the nine candidates, including those from the BJP, Congress and Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), will be decided in the 20 rounds of counting.According to officials, a three-tier security system is in place at the counting venue.The turnout in the constituency dropped by 10 per cent compared to the 2023 assembly election, when it recorded 88.63 per cent polling.The bypoll to this ST-reserved seat in Chhindwara district is prestigious for both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress, as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.Congress won the Amarwara seat in the 2023 assembly elections, but the BJP’s Vivek Bunty Sahu won the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat this time by defeating Nath’s son Nakul Nath.The assembly by-election became necessary after three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah crossed over to the BJP in March this year.He then contested in the bypoll as a BJP candidate.Nine candidates are in the fray, but the main contest is between Kamlesh Shah and Dheeran Shah Invati and GGP nominee Devraman Bhalavi.Himachal Pradesh: CM’s wife and Congress candidate Kamlesh trailing in Dehra; party in lead in HamirpurSHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife and Congress candidate Kamlesh Thakur for the Dehra assembly bypoll was trailing by 360 votes against the BJP’s nominee for the seat on Saturday, officials said.Dehra was one of the three assembly constituencies in the state where by-election was held on Wednesday. The others being Hamirpur and Nalagarh.BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh was ahead of Kamlesh Takhur after two rounds of counting of votes that began at 8 am, the officials said.In the Hamirpur assembly seat, Congress’ Pushpinder Verma was ahead by 200 votes against his nearest rival and BJP candidate Ashish Sharma after the first round of counting, the officials said.Thirteen candidates were in the fray from the three seats.The Nalagarh assembly constituency had recorded the highest polling at 79.04 per cent, followed by Hamirpur (67.72 per cent) and Dehra (65.42 per cent).The overall voting percentage of the three bypolls was 71 per cent, according to the data of the state election department.The seats fell vacant after the three Independent legislators Singh (Dehra), Sharma (Hamirpur) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh), who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the party the next day.Their resignations, however, were accepted by the assembly speaker on June 3, and the seats were declared vacant, necessitating the by-elections.The BJP fielded all the three former MLAs from their respective seats.The Congress fielded Kamlesh Thakur from Dehra, repeated its candidate Pushpinder Verma from Hamirpur and gave ticket to five-time Indian National Trade Union Congress president, Himachal Pradesh unit, Hardeep Singh Baba, from Nalagarh.Though the bypolls will not make much difference in the 68-member House as the Congress has a majority with 38 MLAs.The BJP has 27 members.
Source link
