Seven assembly seats across five states are seeing crucial bypoll results today after elections held in April. Key contests shaped by legacy, party prestige and multi-cornered fights could shift regional political dynamics.
Image Source: IANS
The day has begun with quiet tension across five states, as counting centres open their gates and sealed machines are brought out under tight watch. These bypolls, held on April 9 and April 23, were not routine elections. Each one was triggered by the death of a sitting MLA, turning the races into deeply watched battles between major parties and, in some cases, within powerful political families.
In Maharashtra’s Pune district, the Baramati seat stands out as the most high-profile contest. Known as a stronghold of the influential Pawar family, the seat fell vacant after the death of sitting MLA Ajit Pawar in a plane crash on January 28.
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Now, his wife Sunetra Pawar, a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and the state’s Deputy Chief Minister, has stepped into the electoral arena.
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In Karnataka, two seats, Bagalkot and Davanagere South, went to polls after the deaths of senior Congress leaders HY Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa.
These contests are being seen as a direct face-off between the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has fielded Veerabhadrayya Charantimath in Bagalkot and Srinivas T Dasakariyappa in Davanagere South. The Congress, on the other hand, has nominated Umesh Meti and Samarth Mallikarjun.
In Gujarat’s Umreth seat in Anand district, voters went to the polls following the death of BJP MLA Govind Parmar. The main contest is between his son, BJP candidate Harshad Parmar, and Congress nominee Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan, along with other candidates in the fray.
Nagaland’s Koridang seat in Mokokchung district has seen one of the most crowded contests. Six candidates are competing after the death of BJP MLA Imkong L Imchen. Among them is BJP’s Daochier I Imchen, who has also been named the consensus candidate of the ruling alliance. Congress, the Nationalist People’s Party, and independent candidates are also in the race.
In Tripura’s Dharmanagar seat, the contest has taken a triangular shape. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen in December. The BJP has fielded Jahar Chakraborti, while the Congress has nominated Chayan Bhattacharjee. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has put forward Amitabha Datta, making it a three-way fight.
Meanwhile, in an unexpected development, the bypoll scheduled in Goa’s Ponda constituency was cancelled by the Bombay High Court just hours before voting was to begin.
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