New Delhi/Patna, September 9
Bypolls to 20 assembly seats spread over seven states, including seven each in Bihar and Gujarat, will be held tomorrow in the second major test for political parties after the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Honours were even for the parties in the first round of bypolls for 17 seats held last month after the General Election.
Most of the 20 Assembly seats fell vacant after the MLAs there got elected to the Lok Sabha. Counting of votes will be taken up on September 14.
Besides the 7 seats each in Bihar and Gujarat, elections will be held for two seats in Madhya Pradesh and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Delhi (Dwaraka).
Non-Congress governments are in power in the poll-bound states except in Delhi and AP. The polls will be held in Bochaha (SC), Aurai, Kalyanpur, Warisnagar (SC), Ramgarh, Chainpur and Chenari (SC) (all in Bihar) and Chotila, Jasdan, Dhoraji, Kodinar, Dehgam, Sami and Danta (all in Gujarat) seats.
Assembly constituencies of Gohad and Tendukheda (in MP), Tekkali (Andhra Pradesh), Namchi Singithong (Sikkim), Vikasnagar (Uttarakhand) and Dwarka (Delhi) also goes to polls tomorrow. Polling will be through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Campaigning for Gujarat bypolls remained a low-key affair with Chief Minister Narendra Modi staying away from it. The results in Gujarat are unlikely to alter the ruling BJP’s position in the Assembly with the saffron party enjoying an absolute majority in the House. Congress had won six of the seven seats going to polls.
The byelections are also being held in the backdrop of BJP’s trouble over the Gujarat High Court lifting the state government’s ban on Jaswant Singh's book on Muhammad Ali Jinnah and a metropolitan court probe saying the controversial Ishrat Jahan encounter was fake and executed in “cold blood” by the police.
The Congress is contesting the elections on its own from all the seven
seats in Bihar. All the constituencies in the state are witnessing a multi-cornered fight. Some of the Bihar seats are in naxal-hit areas.
The bypoll in the state may become historical if the ruling JD(U) succeeds in its experiment to end the growing trend of nepotism in politics. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has already termed the bypolls as a referendum on dynasty politics.
Taking a bold and firm initiative on the issue , the JD(U) ensured to deny its symbol to the kin of its senior leaders whose election to the Lok Sabha has necessitated bypoll in their erstwhile Assembly constituency. JD(U)’s ally in the government, BJP, also followed suit
by not nominating the kin of its leaders on the seats vacated by them. Although many of the newly elected MPs preferred to (or were rather compelled to) abide by the decision of their respective parties, a couple of them also defied the party’s diktat.
While the JD(U) MP from Jehanabad, Jagdish Sharma has fielded his wife as an Independent candidate in the fray from the Ghosi Assembly constituency, he had been representing consecutively since 1977, the Gopalganj MP, Purnamasi Ram’s son is the official RJD candidate from Bagaha. After being refused the JD(U) symbol, he joined Lalu Yadav-led RJD and became its official nominee from the seat vacated by his father.
Nitish has been campaigning against the ‘rebels’ asking people to ensure their defeat if they want to end ‘dynasty rule’ in politics. The JD(U) Chief Sharad Yadav has fully supported the stand taken by Nitish Kumar on this issue.
Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Neelmani said in Patna that foolproof security arrangements have been made for ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections. All the polling stations spread over the 7 constituencies would have “strong presence: of regular forces, including District Armed Police (DAP), Bihar Military Police (BMP), Special Task Force (STF) of Bihar police and central paramilitary forces, Neelmani said.
The timing of voting at the polling station in naxal-hit areas would end at 3 pm PM to ensure that the EVMs reach the strong rooms before the evening, he added.
Meanwhile, in Dwarka in the National Capital, a keen tussle between Congress and BJP is on the cards.
