Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi during a poll campaign in Wayanad, Kerala. Photo: X/@priyankagandhi
Jaipur/Kolkata, Nov 12 (PTI) Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut.
Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls.
Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives.
The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept.
Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Though polling was also scheduled for two seats in Sikkim -- Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) nominees Aditya Golay and Satish Chandra Rai have already been declared unopposed after their rivals withdrew from the race.
Priyanka Gandhi, pitted against LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, NDA's Navya Haridas and 13 others in Wayanad, faces a key test -- not only to hold onto the party's stronghold but also to widen the victory margin her brother, Rahul Gandhi, achieved in the last two elections.
This year, Rahul's victory margin was over 3.5 lakh votes while in 2019, it was over 4.3 lakh votes.
In Rajasthan, bypolls will be held in Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar and Ramgarh. In Salumbar and Ramgarh, the bye-elections were necessitated due to the demise of the sitting MLAs -- Amritlal Meena (BJP) and Zubair Khan (Congress) respectively.
The ruling TMC in West Bengal had won five of the six seats -- Taldangra, Sitai-SC, Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, and Madarihat - in the 2021 assembly polls. The Madarihat seat was held by the BJP.
A total of 34 candidates are in the fray in Assam in the five seats going to bypolls - Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon and Sidli.
The INDIA bloc could not build on a consensus in deciding the candidate for Behali with the Congress deciding to field its candidate at the last moment, disagreeing with the alliance's resolution to give the seat to CPI(ML) Liberation.
Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi was adamant about not giving the seat to the opposition ally and instead camped there during the entire campaign phase to personally push party candidate Jayanta Borah. To counter Gogoi's thrust, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma addressed two public meetings and held a roadshow, in support of the BJP nominee Diganta Ghatowar.
Apart from Borah and Ghatowal, Lakhikanta Kurmi from CPI(ML) Liberation as a united opposition candidate and Ananta Gogoi from AAP are also in the fray in Behali.
As campaigning progressed, the public focus gradually shifted towards Samaguri, albeit not for positive news. Incidents of violence were reported almost daily in Samaguri since the announcement of the bypolls.
Supporters of BJP and Congress were attacked and poll offices have been vandalised across the constituency. Several complaints were filed by both the BJP and Congress before the Election Commission. In Samaguri, the Congress has named Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain's son Tanzil as the party's candidate against Diplu Ranjan Sarma of BJP.
In Bihar, bypolls will be held in the Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj and Belaganj seats.
In Karnataka, JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha. The BJP has fielded former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai's son, Bharath Bommai, from Shiggaon. He will face Congress candidate Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan.
Bypolls will also be held in Sandur in the state.
Voting will also be held in Budhni and Vijaypur assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh. The bypoll to Vijaypur seat in Sheopur district was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was made minister in the Mohan Yadav cabinet. The bypoll to Budhni seat is beign held since MLA and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha and is now Union agriculture minister.
The other seats going to bypolls are Chelakkara in Kerala, Vav in Gujarat, Raipur City South in Chhattisgarh and Gambegre (ST) in Meghalaya.
Though voting was initially scheduled on Wednesday for nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Punjab and one more seat in Kerala, the Election Commission rescheduled it to November 20 in view of festivals. PTI