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Bypolls next month. Here are the 13 assembly seats up for grabs
Assembly bypolls are being held because ten MLAs resigned to join other parties, while three legislators passed away.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced bypolls to 13 assembly constituencies of seven states, which will go to polls on July 10 and results will be declared on July 13.
The bye-elections have been necessitated following the resignation of 10 legislators, who then joined other parties while three legislators have passed away.
Here are the Assembly constituencies, which will go to polls:
Rupauli, Bihar: The seat was held by Bima Bharti, who resigned from Janata Dal (United) and joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in March to contest the Lok Sabha election from Purnia parliamentary seat. However, she was defeated by an independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan. In the 243-member House in the state, the ruling NDA has 133 seats, with BJP's 82 members , JDU's 47, HAMS has three legislators and one independent legislators. The joint opposition has strength of 105 members, which includes RJD with 72 seats, Congress with 17 seats, CPI (ML)L has 11 seats, while CPI and CPI(M) each have two seats and AIMIM has one MLA.
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Raiganj, West Bengal: The assembly constituency was being represented by Krishna Kalyani, who switched to the Trinamool Congress from Bharatiya Janata Party and contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election. However, he lost to BJP's Kartick Chandra Paul. West Bengal has 294-member House, in which the ruling TMC has the strength of 215 members, while opposition BJP has 66 members. Other parties including BGPM, ISF, have one seat each along with an independent candidate.
Ranaghat South, West Bengal: The seat was being represented by Mukut Mani Adhikary as a BJP legislator, who joined the Trinamool Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. He was fielded by the party from Ranaghat, a Scheduled Caste reserved constituency and lost to BJP's Jagannath Sarkar.
Bagda, West Bengal: The byepolls have been necessitated following the resignation of Biswajit Das, who was elected on a BJP ticket to the legislative assembly and joined the TMC. He was fielded from Bangaon Lok Sabha seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, but was defeated by BJP's Shantanu Thakur.
Maniktala, West Bengal: The constituency is going to polls following the demise of Sadhan Pande, a TMC legislator on February 20, 2022. He was an eight-time MLA.
Vikravandi, Tamil Nadu: The seat was held by DMK MLA, N Pugazhenthi, who died at the age of 71 in April, necessitating the byepolls. Tamil Nadu has 234-member House and DMK-led government is currently in power with 132 seats, while its allies including INC has 18 seats, VCK 4, CPI 2 and CPI(M) 2 seats. The Opposition AIADMK has 62 seats, and NDA partners including PMK has 5 seats, BJP has 4 along with four independent candidates.
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Amarwara, Madhya Pradesh: The assembly seat in Chhindwara district fell vacant after three-time MLA and Congress leader Kamlesh Shah joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Chhindwara has been a bastion of former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath. Madhya Pradesh has a 230-member House and currently BJP is in power with 165 seats, while opposition Congress has 64 seats and BAP has one seat.
Badrinath, Uttarakhand: The seat is going to polls after three-time Congress MLA resigned and switched to the Bhartaiya Janata Party in March. He had won the seat by defeating the BJP's Uttarakhand unit chief Mahendra Bhatt by a small margin in the 2022 Assembly polls. In the 70-member House of the state, the BJP is in power with 47 MLAs, while opposition Congress has 18 legislators, independent candidates are two and BSP has one MLA.
Manglaur, Uttarakhand: Polling in the seat will be held following the demise of BSP MLA Sarwant Karim Ansari in October 2023. He had won the seat twice in 2012 and 2022.
Jalandhar West, Punjab: The seat was being represented by AAP legislator Sheetal Angural, who tendered resignation his resignation on March 28, a day after joining the BJP. On June 3, he had written Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh to allow him to withdraw his resignation, but the requestr was not accepted, thereby necisating the byepoll. Punjab Legislative Assembly has the strength of 117 members, of which the ruling party AAP has 90 members, while opposition Congress has 13 seats, SAD has three seats, BJP two, BSP one and independent candidates are three.
Dehra, Hamirpur, Nalagarh of Himachal Pradesh: The three assembly seats fell vacant after independent MLAs Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) and KL Thakur (Nalagarh) resigned. The three legislators along with six Congress rebels had voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections. They had joined the BJP on March 23 and moved the Himachal Pradesh high court, seeking directions to the Speaker to accept their resignations. Currently, Congress has the strength of 38 MLAs, while opposition BJP has 28 members in the 68-member House.
