Post Date: Post Date – 09:42 AM, Sunday – Nov 6th
New Delhi: On Sunday, votes were counted in seven parliamentary constituencies in six states, including Admapur, the family bastion of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal.
Bhavya Bishnoi, grandson of Bhajan Lal, who participated in the BJP ballot, and RJD’s Neelam Devi, whose disqualification of husband Anant Singh necessitated the by-election in Mokama, Bihar, are among the key candidates in the race.
The other constituencies where the results of the November 3 vote were cast were Gopalganj in Bihar, Andheri (East) in Maharashtra, Munugode in Telangana, Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar in Odisha.
Of the seven seats that saw fierce competition between the BJP and regional parties, the Saffron Party took three seats, the Congress two seats, and the Shiv Sena Party and the RJD each one seat.
For the Bihar vote, the main contenders are BJP and RJD, while Saffron’s main contenders in Haryana are Congress, INLD and AAP.
The main contestants TRS, SP and BJD will take on BJP in Telangana, with Uttar Pradesh and Odisha respectively taking part in the saffron party.
The BJP is seeking to retain the Gola Gokarannath seat in Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar in BJD-ruled Odisha, relying on sympathy votes as it has sent the sons of the serving MLAs whose deaths need to be voted.
The Gola Gokarannath seat was vacant following the death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri on September 6. There appears to be a direct fight between BJP’s Aman Giri and SP candidate – ex-Gola MLA Vinetivari, as BSP and Congress stay away from the polls.
The BJD fielded Abanti Das, the only woman among the five candidates in Dhamnagar. The death of BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi made the by-election necessary. The Saffron Party has dispatched Sethi’s son, Suryabanshi Suraj.
The BJP and the ruling TRS have been campaigning aggressively in Munugode, Telangana, where the Congressional MLA has resigned and is fighting for Saffron votes.
In Adampur, by-elections must be held after former chief minister Bajan Lal’s youngest son, Kuldeep Bishnoy, resigned from the MLA and switched from Congress to the BJP in August. Bishnoi’s son Bhavya is now running as a BJP candidate.
The Adampur seat has been held by the Bhajan Lal family since 1968 and the late former chief minister has represented the seat nine times, his wife Jasma Devi once and Kuldeep four times.
Bihar witnessed the first electoral test of the “Mahagathbandhan” government led by Nitish Kumar, which was formed less than three months ago after JD(U) parted ways with the BJP.
Mokama and Gopalganj seats in Bihar were earlier held by RJD and BJP respectively.
The BJP is campaigning from the Mokama constituency for the first time as the Saffron Party has reserved seats to allies on previous occasions. Both the BJP and RJD fielded the wives of local muscle men in the polls.
BJP nominee Sonam Devi faces off against RJD’s Neelam Devi, whose husband Anant Singh has been disqualified, so a by-election must be held.
Mokama has been Anant Singh’s home base since 2005. He won the JD(U) ticket twice and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called on voters to back him.
In Gopalganj, the BJP sent Kusum Devi, the wife of the late party MLA Subhash Singh. The RJD fielded Mohan Gupta while Indira Yadav, wife of Lalu Yadav’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, was running for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.
Shivsena’s Rutujaratek is expected to easily win Mumbai’s Andheri East parliamentary constituency after the BJP dropped out of the race, following Eknath Shinde’s replacement of Thackeray as maharaja For the first time since the recent split of Strath Chief Minister Shiv Sena.
The NCP and Congress supported her candidacy. The by-election was necessary due to the death in May of Latke’s husband and Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.
