Counting of votes for the by-elections to one Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal’s Asansol and four assembly seats in Bengal’s Ballygunge, Khairagarh in Chhattisgarh, Bochahan in Bihar, and Kolhapur North in Maharashtra will begin on Saturday.
West Bengal
West Bengal’s Asansol and Ballygunge have emerged as a major prestige fight for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP. In Asansol, which has a Hindi-speaking population, the ruling TMC has fielded actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha. The BJP has fielded Asansol Dakshin MLA Agnimitra Paul. Mamata Banerjee’s party has fielded Babul Supriyo in Ballygunge where he is up against BJP’s Keya Ghosh and CPI(M)’s Saira Shah Halim. The Congress is also in the fray in both the seats. While Asansol recorded 64.03 percent polling, Ballygunge witnessed an even lower 41.10 percent till 5 pm.
Chhattisgarh
In Chhattisgarh, the fight is on between the ruling Congress’ Yashoda Verma and the BJP’s Komal Janghel as the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) has lost considerable clout since the death of its founder and former chief minister Ajit Jogi in 2020. The Congress has promised to make Khairagarh a district if it wins the bypoll. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of JCC(J) MLA Devvrat Singh. The voter turnout was 77.88 per cent, and postal ballots will be counted first followed by the EVM ones, officials said.
Maharashtra
The bypoll in Kolhapur was necessitated following the death of sitting Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav due to Covid-19 in December 2021. As much as 60.09 per cent of voters exercised their franchise as per tentative data. There were 15 candidates in the fray, though the main fight was expected to be between Congress, one of the constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state, and opposition BJP. Congress fielded Jayashree Jadhav, the wife of the late MLA, while the BJP fielded Satyajit Kadam.
State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil claimed in Kolhapur that his party will win with “a high margin.” “When voter turnout increases, the BJP benefits. As the voter turnout will be between 60 and 65 per cent, we will win the election,” Patil had said, while denying allegations about alleged cash distribution by BJP workers prior to the polls.
Bihar
Around 59.20 per cent of the 2.90 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the by-election to the Bochahan assembly constituency by the end of the polling on Tuesday. Bypoll to the seat was necessitated by the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who had won on the ticket of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) of Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahani.
Sahani, who initially wanted to field the deceased MLA’s son Amar, recently lost his ministerial berth, and subsequently the trust of his prospective candidate. Amar jumped ship and is now in the fray as the candidate of the RJD, which his father had defeated to win the seat. Sahani has now fielded Gita Devi, whose father Ramai Ram was the RJD candidate in the 2020 assembly polls.
The BJP has nominated Baby Kumari who enjoys the image of a “giant killer” in the constituency. She had won the seat in 2015, contesting as an Independent, defeating Ramai Ram who had represented Bochahan multiple times and on tickets of various parties. Also in the fray are the Congress, which appears to have been dumped by the RJD for good, four Independents and candidates of lesser parties, including AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi.
(With inputs from PTI)
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