Election results will be announced in 56 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat across 10 states today. Out of these Madhya Pradesh is at the center as 28 seats in the Assembly will go to polls.
Eight Assembly seats are up for polls in Gujarat, seven in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Odisha, Nagaland, Karnataka, and Jharkhand; and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Haryana were held on November 3 and bypolls for seats in Manipur and one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar were held on November 7.
Madhya Pradesh bypolls will be closely watched as most seats in Madhya Pradesh Assembly fell vacant after Jyotiraditya Scindia defected to Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) from Congress in March with 22 of his close allies. This move had led to the fall of of Congress’ Kamal Nath government.
Out of the 28 seats, 16 seats are from the Gwalior and Chambal regions which is largely regarded as strongholds of the Scindia family. During the campaigning in these regions Kamal Nath’s ‘item’ remark for a former Congress minister was hugely debated. Kamal Nath was removed as ‘star campaigner’ by the Election Commission but the Supreme Court put that order on hold.
These election results are unlikely to affect the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government but for Congress must win all 28 to challenge the government. The BJP needs to win nine seats to claim a simple majority in the state. The voting was largely peaceful except for two reports of firing in the Morena Sumawali seat.
There was 66.37 per cent voter turnout in Madhya Pradesh on November 3 despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Uttar Pradesh where seven seats are up for grabs, the spotlight being on Bangarmau, which was held by the BJP’s Kuldeep Singh Sengar till his conviction in the Unnao rape case in December last year. This bypoll will be contested fiercely as Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad marks his electoral debut.
There was 53.6 per cent voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh on November 3 amid Covid-19 pandemic.
In Gujarat, there are eight seats to be filled which were left vacant after eight Congress members jumped ship to BJP ahead of Rajya Sabha election in June. Out of these eight seats, five are former Congress leaders looking to reclaim the seats they surrendered.
In Karnataka, two seats are up for grabs Sira in Tumakuru district and Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru where Congress, the JDS and the BJP contesting agahisbt each other.
In Odisha, two seats are vacant one in Balasore and other in Tirol and in Chattisgarh the Marwahi seat which was will again be contested fiercely by BJP and Congress.