ROUND 2 OF NDA, INDIA BLOC BATTLE: 13 ASSEMBLY BYPOLLS, FROM KEY BENGAL SEATS TO PRESTIGE HIMACHAL, PUNJAB FIGHTS
Following the Lok Sabha elections, battle lines have been drawn between the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Opposition INDIA alliance for the by-elections in 13 Assembly constituencies across the country.
The Lok Sabha poll results saw the BJP falling short of a simple majority, even as the INDIA bloc improved its tally and heft significantly.
The 13 Assembly bypolls, scheduled for July 10 in seven states, have been necessitated either due to vacancies created due to deaths or resignations of incumbent MLAs from different parties.
These seats include Rupauli in Bihar; Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda and Maniktala in West Bengal; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; and Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh.
West Bengal
Of the four seats going for bypolls in Bengal, three seats were won by the BJP and one by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the 2021 Assembly elections. With the TMC having momentum after its impressive Lok Sabha poll performance – where it won 29 seats of 42 as against the BJP's 12 – the BJP has its task cut out.
The Maniktala seat fell vacant after the demise of sitting TMC leader Sadhan Pandey in 2022. The party has fielded his wife Supti Pandey for the upcoming bypoll. The BJP has fielded All India Football Federation (AIFF) chief Kalyan Chaubey against her.
In the 2021 elections too, Chaubey had contested from the same seat on the BJP's ticket, but lost to Sadhan Pandey, former minister. He challenged the result in the Calcutta High Court, alleging irregularities and demanding a recount of votes. As a result of the petition, a bypoll could not be held in Maniktala even after Pandey’s death in February 2022. Chaubey withdrew the petition in April, paving the way for the bypoll to be held now.
The Maniktala constituency has been a TMC stronghold, which the party has held since 2011.
The Raiganj seat may see a keen fight. In the 2021 elections, the BJP’s Krishna Kalyani won it with 49.44 % votes. Ahead of the recent Lok Sabha polls, Kalyani resigned from the BJP to contest from the Raiganj parliamentary constituency on the TMC ticket. He lost the election, but the TMC has again fielded him from his erstwhile seat in the bypoll. The BJP has pitted a local party leader Manas Kumar Ghosh against him.
Bagda was won by the BJP’s Biswajit Das in 2021 with 49.41% votes. He also shifted to the TMC to contest the Lok Sabha polls, unsuccessfully, on its ticket from the Bangaon (SC) seat. The TMC has nominated Madhuparna Thakur as its candidate for the Bagda seat bypoll.
Madhuparna Thakur, the daughter of the TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur, belongs to the erstwhile Matua Thakurbari family. The BJP has fielded a local leader Binay Kumar Biswas against her.
In Ranaghat Dakshin, the BJP’s Mukut Mani Adkhikari had defeated the TMC in 2021 with a 49.34 % vote share. He, too, defected to the TMC to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the seat of the same name and lost to the BJP's candidate. He is contesting again in the Assembly bypoll from the seat on the TMC ticket. He is pitted against the BJP's Manoj Kumar Biswas.
Himachal Pradesh
One of the most high-profile of the seats going for the bypolls is Dehra in Himachal Pradesh, from where the Congress has fielded Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
In the 2022 Assembly polls, the Dehra seat was won by Independent candidate Hoshyar Singh Chambyal with a margin of 6.4% votes. He is the BJP candidate from the seat now.
Dehra fell vacant along with Hamirpur and Nalagarh seats days after their MLAs, all Independents, voted in the favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year. The three Independent MLAs went on to resign from their seats to join the BJP.
In the Hamirpur seat, the BJP gave its ticket to former Independent MLA Ashish Sharma whose resignation necessitated the election. The Congress has pitched veteran party worker Pushpendra Verma from the seat against him.
Similarly, the BJP also gave its ticket to former Independent MLA KL Thakur in Nalagarh seat, where he will take on the Congress's Hardeep Singh Bawa.
The stakes are high for the ruling Congress to wrest these seats to reinforce its position in the state, especially in Dehra.
Uttarakhand
The Badrinath seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari resigned from the House in March and joined the BJP. The Manglaur seat bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari last October.
The BJP has nominated Bhandari from Badrinath and Kartar Singh Bhadana from Manglaur seat, which the party has never won since Uttarakhand's creation as a separate state.
Bhadana, the brother of Congress leader Avtar Singh Bhadana, was previously a BSP leader in Haryana and also a member of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) under Om Prakash Chautala.
The Congress has chosen Lakhpat Butola for the Badrinath seat and senior party leader Qazi Nizamuddin for the Manglaur seat, which he has won three times previously.
The BSP, which has some influence in the Haridwar region, has fielded Ubedur Rehman for the Manglaur seat, potentially making it a three-way contest.
Tamil Nadu
The bypoll in the Vikravandi seat was necessitated after the death of sitting DMK MLA N Pughazenthi in April this year.
The DMK has fielded Anniyur Siva for the bypoll, exuding confidence about its win.
Significantly, the AIADMK pulled out of the Vikravandi bypoll following a string of its losses in the Lok Sabha elections and previous polls and bypolls.
The Anbumani Ramdoss-led PMK, an NDA constituent, has fielded party vice president C Anbumani from the Vikravandi seat with an eye on the OBC Vanniyar community – its traditional voter base. The party aims to capitalise on the community’s substantial presence in the constituency and the backing of the NDA while banking on prominent leaders like state BJP president K Annamalai and AMMK chief Dhinakaran.
Jalandhar West
The Jalandhar West (SC) seat became vacant after the sitting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Sheetal Angural defected to the BJP in March this year, along with the then AAP MP from Jalandhar, Sushil Kumar Rinku.
Now, Angural is contesting from the seat as the BJP candidate. The AAP has nominated Mohinder Bhagat, a former BJP member who previously contested against the Congress's Sushil Rinku in the 2017 Assembly elections but lost.
The Congress has nominated councillor Surinder Kaur from the seat. For the Congress, clinching Jalandhar West is imperative to maintain momentum after former CM Charanjit Singh Channi's recent Lok Sabha victory in the Jalandhar seat.
The BJP aims to narrow the vote margin it faced against the Congress in this Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha elections, while the AAP, which rules the state, sees this by-election as crucial for its future prospects in the wake of its disappointing performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
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2024-06-24T12:15:13Z dg43tfdfdgfd