New Delhi: Campaigning ended yesterday for three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly by-elections spread across various states with the polls being seen as a test of popularity of respective state governments as also of the BJP which held many of these seats.
Polling will be held tomorrow to Medak parliamentary seat in Telangana, Vadodra in Gujarat and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. Three assembly seats in Assam, nine in Gujarat, four in Rajasthan, 11 in Uttar Pradesh, two in West Bengal and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim and Tripura will also go to the polls tomorrow.
Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel will face her first major political test in the by-poll to nine assembly and one Lok Sabha seat. The Vadodara Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he was elected to parliament from two places including Varanasi. The nine assembly seats where elections are to be held are Deesa, Maninagar (vacated by Modi), Tankara, Khambhalia, Mangrol, Talaja, Anand, Matar and Limkheda. The last seat is reserved for tribals. The nine seats were given up by BJP legislators after they were elected to the Lok Sabha.
Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party and BJP will be the main contenders in most of the 11 assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat where by-elections will be held tomorrow. A total of 25 candidates are in the fray for bypolls in Assam’s three legislative assembly constituencies — Silchar, Lakhipur and Jamunamukh. In Tripura, over 38,000 voters are eligible to cast their votes in the Manu assembly by-poll.
West Bengal would hold by-polls to the Chowringhee and Basirhat (South) assembly constituencies. The bypolls are being held in the enlarging shadow of the Saradha chit fund scam probe, which threatens to net political big fish.
The four assembly constituencies in Rajasthan — Nasirabad, Weir, Surajgarh and Kota South — will see closely-fought poll battles between the BJP and the Congress. In Telangana, the pro-Telangana sentiment is likely to help the Telangana Rashtra Samithi retain the Medak Lok Sabha seat. Counting for all the assembly and Lok Sabha seats will be held on September 16. IANS
