Bypolls to 15 Assembly seats across UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Kerala underway

Voting for by-election to Maharashtra’s Nanded parliamentary constituency is also being held today. As of 11 am, 12.59 per cent turnout was recorded here, as per the Voter Turnout app.

Rescheduled 

The Election Commission of India (ECI) first announced bypolls to 48 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies on October 15.

The bypolls were to be held on Nov 13 for all seats except the Nanded parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra and Kedarnath Assembly constituency in Uttarakhand, scheduled on Nov 20. However, the by-elections in 14 of the 15 seats going to polls on Wednesday were rescheduled from Nov 13 after receiving requests from political parties in view of voter turnout being affected due to festivities.

The poll body revised the dates in Palakkad (Kerala), four seats in Punjab and nine seats in Uttar Pradesh to Nov 20. The date of counting of votes, Nov 23 (Saturday), remains the same.

Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, voters are out to cast their ballot to nine assembly seats of Katehari, Karhal, Mirapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki seats.

The EC update at 11 am showed the voter turnout as:

• Meerapur – 26 per cent
• Majhawan – 20.41 per cent
• Khair – 19.18 per cent
• Phulpur – 17.68 per cent
• Kundarki – 28.54 per cent
• Karhal – 20.71 per cent
• Katehari – 24.28 per cent
• Ghaziabad – 12.87 per cent
• Sishamau – 15.91 per cent

Of the nine seats, eight fell vacant following the incumbent MLAs’ election to the Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, polling in Sisamau is being conducted due to Samajwadi Party’s (SP) MLA Irfan Solanki’s disqualification from the Assembly after his conviction in a criminal case.

Karhal is the most significant of the nine constituencies as it was vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. His nephew Tej Pratap is contesting here. Meanwhile, SP has lodged complaints alleging that its supporters have been stopped from voting in some places.

Punjab

In Punjab, the bypolls to four Assembly seats started out dull with a voter turnout of over eight per cent in the first two hours of polling. As of 11 am, the Gidderbaha seat recorded 32.85 percent polling, Dera Baba Nanak 25.5 per cent, Barnala 16.30 per cent and Chabbewal 12.71 per cent.

The bypolls were scheduled after the incumbent MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha. Of the four seats, Dera Baba Nanak, Gidderbaha and Chabbewal were earlier held by the Congress and Barnala was held by the AAP.

The poll dates were revised as Gurpurab of Guru Nanak Dev in Punjab falls on Nov 15.

Kerala

As of 11 am, bypoll in Kerala’s Palakkad saw a voter turnout of 24.95 per cent. The by-election comes with Congress leader Shafi Parambil resigning as MLA  after his election to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara.

The key contenders are Rahul Mamkootathil (Congress-led UDF), C. Krishnakumar (BJP-led NDA), and P Sarin (CPI(M)-led LDF).

Uttarakhand

In the lone seat of Kedarnath, a turnout of 17.69 per cent was recorded as of 11 am. The assembly seat in Rudraprayag district fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Shaila Rani Rawat in July this year.

There are six candidates in the fray including BJP’s Asha Nautiyal and Congress’s Manoj Rawat.

— With PTI inputs