Bypoll Updates: The voting for assembly by-polls are underway in the four states of the country on Monday. The voting of by-polls is being conducted at Lumla in Arunachal Pradesh, Ramgarh in Jharkhand, Erode East in Tamil Nadu and Sagardighi in West Bengal. The voting on Monday at all assembly seats for by-polls commenced at 7 AM today and will conclude at 5 PM. According to the Election Commission, the result will be declared on March 2, 2023, along with the results of state assembly elections in Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
Till 3 pm, 59.22% voter turnout was recorded in Erode East Assembly by-polls in Tamil Nadu, 63.43% in Sagardighi Assembly by-polls in West Bengal and 62.28% in Ramgarh Assembly by-polls in Jharkhand.
Arunachal Pradesh
Voting of By-polls is underway at Lumla in Arunachal Pradesh. As per reports, a total of 9,169 electorates would cast their votes today. Out of 9,169 voters, 4,712 are women voters who will cast their votes in 33 polling booths. After the death of BJP leader Jambey Tashi, Tsering Lhamu was fielded by the BJP.
Jharkhand
A voter turnout of 62.82 per cent was recorded till 3 PM in the Ramgarh assembly constituency by-poll in Jharkhand. Polling for the by-election began at 7 am, amid tight security arrangements. An election official said that 15.19 per cent of votes were cast in the first two hours of polling in the Ramgarh assembly seat.
Though 18 candidates, including 14 Independents, are in the fray, the contest will be mainly between the Congress, an ally of the ruling JMM-led coalition, and the AJSU Party, which has tied up with the BJP for the by-poll. Over 3.34 lakh voters, including 1.61 lakh women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-election.
Tamil Nadu
59.22 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Erode East Assembly by-polls in Tamil Nadu till 3 PM. Polling for the Erode East byelection began here on Monday, with district collector Krishnan Unni being among the early voters. While 77 candidates are in the fray, the battle is likely between DMK-backed Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan and AIADMK's KS Thennarasru. Nam Tamizhar Katchi's Meneka Navaneethan is among the other candidates.
The outcome of the election, the first since the DMK came to power in 2021, will have no major bearing on the existing strength of the respective parties but is being seen as an indicator of the ruling party's popularity. The election was necessitated due to the death of Elangovan's son and Congress legislator E Thirumahan Everaa.
The constituency has a little over 2.27 lakh voters and 238 polling stations.
West Bengal
A voter turnout of over 63.43 per cent was recorded till 3 PM West Bengal's Sagardighi by-polls on Monday. The polling has been peaceful and no untoward incident was reported, the official said. " Till 9 am, 13.37 per cent polling was recorded. So far, it is completely peaceful, and no untoward incident has been reported," Sanjoy Basu, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, told PTI.
Candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress, the opposition BJP and the Congress-Left alliance are the main contestants.
The TMC has fielded Debashish Banerjee, the BJP nominee is Dilip Saha, and the Left-supported Congress candidate is Bayron Biswas. The by-poll to the Sagardighi assembly seat was necessitated by the death of its three-time TMC MLA and state minister Subrata Saha in December last year.
(with inputs from PTI)
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