Round 2 of NDA vs INDIA as 13 assembly seats in 7 states go to bypolls today; Bengal on focus | 10 points

Bypolls 2024: In a fresh round of election battle between NDA and INDIA bloc, 13 assembly constituencies in 7 states are going to bypolls today.

In a fresh round of election battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and the Opposition's INDIA bloc, 13 assembly constituencies in seven states are going to bypolls on Wednesday, July 10. The electoral exercise is the first since the Lok Sabha elections and is being held after vacancies were created on the seats either due to the deaths or the resignation of incumbent members.

13 assembly seats in 7 states go to bypolls today

The counting of votes for the bypolls will be held on July 13.

Here are top points on bypolls 2024:

1. The 13 assembly seats going to bypolls today are - Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda and Maniktala (West Bengal); Badrinath and Manglaur (Uttarakhand); Jalandhar West (Punjab); Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh (Himachal Pradesh); Rupauli (Bihar); Vikravandi (Tamil Nadu) and Amarwara (Madhya Pradesh).
2. In West Bengal, the BJP and the ruling TMC are fighting on all four assembly seats. Three out of the four constituencies were won by the BJP in 2021, however, they were left vacant due to defections in TMC. While, the fourth seat - Maniktala - was necessitated by the death of sitting TMC MLA Sadhan Pandey in February 2022.
3. In West Bengal's Raiganj and Ranaghat Dakshin, Krishna Kalyani and Mukut Mani Adhikhari, who were formerly in the BJP, are contesting on a TMC ticket against BJP's Manas Kumar Ghosh and Manoj Kumar Biswas respectively. Meanwhile, the TMC has fielded Supti Pandey from Maniktala against BJP's All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey, and TMC's Madhuparna Thakur is contesting from the Badgah seat against BJP's Binay Kumar Biswas.
4. Buoyed by its Lok Sabha poll performance, the TMC hopes to win all four assembly seats. “We are confident of winning all four assembly seats. The people of Bengal have rejected the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls,” said TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, as quoted by PTI.
5. In Uttarakhand, two assembly seats are going to bypolls - Badrinath (a holy site with a Char Dham shrine in it) and Manglaur (a Muslim-majority constituency). Former Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari, who joined the BJP, is contesting from Badrinath against Congress' Lakhpat Butola, a former district panchayat president. In Manglaur, the Congress has fielded senior leader Qazi Nizamuddin against BJP's Kartar Singh Bhadana. Notably, the BJP has never won the Manglaur seat since the creation of Uttarakhand.
6. In Punjab, the Jalandhar West assembly seat fell vacant after Sheetal Angural resigned as AAP legislator. The bypoll to this seat is being seen as a litmus test for chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who has pulled out all the stops to register a win after the party's drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. The AAP has fielded Mohinder Bhagat, the son of former minister and former BJP MLA Bhagat Chunni Lal, against BJP's Angural, who switched sides in March after quitting the AAP. The Congress has placed its bet on Surinder Kaur, who is the former senior deputy mayor and five-time municipal councillor in Jalandhar.
7. In Himachal Pradesh, the bypolls will be held for three assembly constituencies - Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh. The seats became vacant after the three independent legislators, Hoshiyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur), and K L Thakur (Nalagarh), resigned from the House on March 22. They had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27. In Dehra, Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur is contesting the election against BJP's Hoshiyar Singh, one of the nine MLAs who had voted against the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls. In Hamirpur, the home district of Sukhu, former Independent MLA Ashish Sharma is pitted against Congress' Puspender Verma.
8. Bihar is witnessing a battle between the RJD and JD(U) in the Rupauli assembly constituency. Both parties have fielded candidates who are from the majority Gangota community.
9. In Tamil Nadu, the bypoll is being held in the Vikravandi assembly constituency. The AIADMK has decided to boycott the elections, expressing doubt that they will take place democratically. With this, the DMK looks confident of an easy win, even as NDA allies Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) aim to win the polls.
10. Madhya Pradesh is witnessing a fight between the BJP and Congress on the Amarwara assembly constituency - Congress veteran Kamal Nath's key seat. While the BJP has fielded Kamlesh Shah as its candidate, the Congress has fielded Dheeran Shah Invati in the tribal-dominated constituency.

(With inputs from PTI)