The bypolls for the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in Punjab and assembly constituencies of UP and Odisha and Meghalaya took place on May 10. The counting of votes is underway.
JALANDHAR: Counting of votes began Saturday morning for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll that witnessed a four-corner battle among the BJP, Congress, SAD and the ruling AAP.
Counting began at 8 am, officials said. A tight security arrangement has been put in place in and around the counting centres set up at the office of the Director Land Records and Sports College Complex in Kapurthala Road.
Prominent among the 19 candidates in the fray are the AAP’s Sushil Rinku, Congress’ Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, BJP’s Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, and the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Sukhwinder Kumar Sukh
The bypoll, held on May 10, recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent, the officials said.
It was well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Jalandhar seat had fallen vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January.
The AAP fielded former MLA Rinku, who joined the party after quitting the Congress, while Atwal moved to the BJP from the SAD.
Backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the SAD fielded Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, its two-time MLA from Banga, whereas the Congress nominated Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.
The ruling AAP is hoping to mark its presence in the Lok Sabha by registering a victory in the bypoll.
A win will be a boost for the party, which had faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Sangrur, just three months after it stormed to power in Punjab in March 2022.
The bypoll is also being seen as a test of the one-year performance of the Bhagwant Mann-led government, which has been promoting its moves to provide free electricity and jobs to the youths, regularise services of contractual employees, action against corruption and opening mohalla clinics, among others.
The Congress, on the other hand, is looking to retain Jalandhar, a traditional stronghold for the party, which has remained undefeated from the seat since 1999.
The stakes are also high for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the SAD after their defeats in the assembly election.
The two parties were allies in Punjab before the SAD broke off ties over the now-repealed farm laws in 2020.
BHUBANESWAR: Counting of votes for the by-election to Odisha’s Jharsuguda assembly seat began at 8 am on Saturday amid tight security arrangements, an official said.
Though there were nine candidates in the fray, the contest was restricted to three nominees – Deepali Das of the ruling BJD, Tarun Pandey of the Congress and Tankadhar Tripathy (BJP).
The outcome of the by-poll will not have any impact on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government headed by Naveen Patnaik, as the party enjoys a comfortable majority.
Altogether, 79.21 per cent of 2.21 lakh voters had exercised their franchise on May 10.
The by-poll was held following the assassination of health minister Naba Kisore Das on January 29 allegedly by a police officer.
“All arrangements are in place for the counting of votes at the Engineering School premises in Jharsuguda. There will be 18 complete rounds and one partial round. Postal ballots will be counted first,” Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal had said on Friday.
In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJD has 113 members, the opposition BJP and Congress have 22 and nine MLAs, respectively.
The CPI(M) has one member and there is one Independent legislator.
Counting of votes for ULB polls, assembly bypolls in UP begins
LUCKNOW: Counting of votes cast during the two phases of the urban local bodies’ polls and the by-election to two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh began on Saturday morning.
Officials said most of the preparations are complete and the counting started at 8 am on Saturday. They said instructions were given to arrange cold water and ‘sharbat’ at the counting centres in view of the rising heat.
The State Election Commission (SEC) said that 353 counting centres have been set up.
Lucknow District Magistrate Suryapal Gangwar and Joint Commissioner of Police Upendra Agrawal reviewed the preparations in the state capital.
The bypolls were held in the Suar assembly seat in Rampur district and Chhanbey (SC) in Mirzapur district on May 10.
There was a direct contest between the ruling coalition led by the BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) on both seats, political analysts say.
The Suar seat fell vacant in February following the disqualification of SP leader Azam Khan’s son Abdullah Azam Khan as an MLA after a Moradabad court sentenced him to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case.
The Chhanbey seat fell vacant after the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.
The ULB polls were held in two phases on May 4 and May 11.
About 53 per cent of voters exercised their franchise during the ULB polls out of the total 4.32 crore who were eligible to vote, according to the Election Commission data.
Seventeen mayors and 1,401 corporators will be elected after the results are declared on Saturday. As many as 19 corporators have been elected unopposed.
Shahjahanpur will elect its mayor for the first time this year as the city became a municipal corporation in 2018.
Meerut and Aligarh had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) mayors in 2017, while the BJP ruled the rest of the civic bodies.
The ULB polls will also elect 198 chairpersons and 5,260 members of nagar palika parishads. For nagar panchayats, the fate of 542 chairpersons and 7,104 members will be decided.
There were 83,378 candidates in the fray for 14,522 posts, according to the SEC.
During the campaign, senior leaders of various political parties visited different parts of the state.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak campaigned extensively for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates.
State BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma also held election meetings for party candidates.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held roadshows. Mainpuri MP Dimple Yadav also campaigned for party candidates.
SHILLONG: Counting of votes is underway for the Sohiong by-election in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills, a senior official said on Saturday.
The counting exercise began at 8 am amid tight security, he said.
The by-poll was necessitated following the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the assembly elections held in the rest of the state on February 27.
The National People’s Party (NPP) is aiming at increasing its seat tally in the 60-member assembly to 29 with a victory in the by-election.
Six candidates are in the fray – Synshar Lyngdoh Thabah of the UDP, Samlin Malngiang of the NPP, S Osborne Kharjana of the Congress, Sandondor Ryntathiang of the HSPDP, Sereph E Kharbuki of the BJP and Stodingstar Thabah of the TMC.
Polling in Sohiong took place on May 10 with over 91.8 per cent of the over 34,000 voters exercising their franchise.
