Assembly bypolls: Polling in 13 seats on July 10

Bypolls to 13 assembly constituencies in seven states will be held on Wednesday The electoral exercise the first since the Lok Sabha elections will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhus wife Kamlesh ThakurThe assembly seats going to polls are Raiganj Ranaghat Dakshin Bagda and Maniktala West Bengal Badrinath and Manglaur Uttarakhand Jalandhar West Punjab Dehra Hamirpur and Nalagarh Himachal Pradesh Rupauli Bihar Vikravandi Tamil Nadu and Amarwara Madhya PradeshThe bypolls are to be held against vacancies created either due to deaths or resignation of incumbent membersIn West Bengal the stakes are high for both the ruling TMC which is looking to capitalise on its improved performance in the Lok Sabha polls and the BJP which is seeking to leverage the significant leads it made in the four constituencies in the parliamentary pollsThe TMC won Maniktala seat in the 2021 West Bengal elections while the BJP won Raiganj Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda Later the BJP MLAs switched to the TMCThe Maniktala bypoll was necessitated by the death of sitting TMC MLA Sadhan Pandey in February 2022The TMC has fielded Pandeys wife Supti from the seat The ruling party has fielded Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat DakshinIn Badgah a Matuamajority constituency the TMC has fielded Madhuparna Thakur a member of the Matua Thakurbari and daughter of party Rajya Sabha MP Mamatabala ThakurKalyani Adhikari and Biswajit Das had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls on TMC tickets after resigning from the BJPThe BJP has fielded All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey from Maniktala Manoj Kumar Biswas from Ranaghat Dakshin Binay Kumar Biswas from Bagdah and Manas Kumar Ghosh from RaiganjBuoyed by its Lok Sabha poll performance the TMC hopes to win all four assembly seatsWe are confident of winning all four assembly seats The people of Bengal have rejected the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls said TMC leader Kunal GhoshThe TMC won 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal up from 22 in the 2019 parliamentary polls On the other hand the BJPs tally came down to 12 from 18 in 2019In Himachal Pradesh bypolls will be held for three assembly constituencies Dehra Hamirpur and NalagarhThe seats fell vacant after the three independent legislators Hoshiyar Singh Dehra Ashish 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 House on March 22The BJP has fielded the three former Independent MLAs from their respective seats after they joined the party A total of 13 candidates are contesting the bypolls in the three segments with 259340 votersThe Congress pick in Dehra is Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhus wife Kamlesh Thakur She will take on BJPs Hoshiyar Singh one of the nine MLAs who had voted against the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha pollsVote for the CM and not the MLA Now Dehra will also become the constituency of the CM Kamlesh Thakur told people while canvassing implying that voting for her meant voting for the CM and hence developmentI will not need to go to the Secretariat to get your work done I will get it done from the chief minister at home she saidIn Hamirpur the home district of Sukhu former Independent MLA Ashish Sharma is pitted against Congress Puspender VermaFormer Independent legislator K L Thakur is facing old rival Hardeep Singh Bawa of the Congress in Nalagarh The entry of BJP dissident Harpreet Saini who is contesting as an Independent has made the contest triangularThe BJP got a lead in all three assembly constituencies during the recently held Lok Sabha pollsNeighbouring Uttarakhands Manglaur constituency will also witness a threecornered fight The bypoll was necessitated by the death of sitting BSP MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari in October last yearThe BJP has never won the Muslim and Dalitdominated Manglaur seat which has been held either by the Congress or the BSP in the pastThis time the BSP has fielded Ansaris son Ubedur Rehman against Congress nominee Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin Gujjar leader and BJP nominee Kartar Singh Bhadana is also in the frayPolling will also be held for the Badrinath assembly bypoll The seat fell vacant after sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari resigned and switched to the BJP in March this yearBadrinath will witness a direct fight between BJPs Rajendra Bhandari and Congress newcomer Lakhpat Singh ButolaTraditionally the party in power in the state has an edge over its rivals in bypolls Of the 15 bypolls held in Uttarakhand since its creation 14 were won by the party in powerIn Punjab the bypoll to the Jalandhar West assembly segment is being seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who has pulled out all the stops to register a win after the partys drubbing in the Lok Sabha pollsThe seat which fell vacant after Sheetal Angural resigned as AAP legislator is witnessing a multicornered fightFifteen candidates are in the fray for the byelection while there are a total of 172 lakh voters who are eligible to cast their votesThe ruling AAP has fielded Mohinder Bhagat the son of former minister and former BJP MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal Bhagat had joined the AAP after quitting the BJP last yearThe Congress has placed its bet on Surinder Kaur who is the former senior deputy mayor and fivetime municipal councillor in Jalandhar She is a prominent Dalit leader of the Ravidassia communityThe BJP has fielded Angural who switched sides in March after quitting the AAP He had won this seat in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls on an AAP ticketWinning the bypoll is important for Mann as his party faced a drubbing in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls winning only three of the 13 seatsMann led the AAPs campaign for the bypoll and canvassed for Bhagat by holding public meetings and roadshows He rented a house in Jalandhar and moved there along with his family and had said he would keep the house even after the bypollPrestige is also at stake for the BJP which also wants to emerge victorious in the Jalandhar West seat after drawing a blank in the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsThe counting of votes for the bypolls will be held on July 13 PTI TEAM DIV DIVThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever