Assam By polls: Voting begins in 5 constituencies amid COVID protocols

GUWAHATI: The fate of three 3 Lok Sabha seats and 29 assembly seats in 13 states and one union territory will be decided on Saturday amid stringent COVID protocols.

The poll timing is from 7am to 7pm.

Assam will witness five Assembly bypolls in constituencies including Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district, Tamulpur in Baksa district, Mariani and Thowra in Jorhat district and Bhawanipur.

Bypolls in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur were required owing to the deaths of the sitting MLAs. On the other hand the incumbents of Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra left their seats to join the saffron clan.

MLAs Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain resigned from the Congress. While Phanidhar Talukdar left AIUDF and is now fighting on BJP ticket.

In Mizoram, the ruling Mizo National Front will stand in front of opposition Congress, Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM) and BJP, in the bye-election for Tuirial assembly seat.

The Bypolls for Lok sabha seats will take place in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh

In West Bengal the main contenders are

ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP for bypolls at Dinhata in Cooch Behar, Santipur in Nadia, Khardah in North 24 Parganas and Gosaba in South 24 Parganas.

Meghalaya will witness polls in three seats Mawryngkneng, Mawphlang and Rajabala. The face off will be between National People’s Party and the Congress.

A total of 17 candidates will be contesting the bypoll for two seats, Tarapur and Kushweshwar Asthan, in Bihar.

The bypolls for Sindgi and Hanagal assembly constituencies are seen as the first electoral test for Basavaraj Bommai, who replaced B S Yediyurappa as Karnataka chief minister on July 28 this year.

The stakes are high for Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur as

In Himachal Pradesh bypolls for Mandi Lok Sabha and three assembly seats — Fatehpur, Jubbal-Kothkai and Arki will be held.

The battle between BJP and Congress will be seen Rajasthan's Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar assembly segments.

Telangana is expected to witness an intense fight between the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and BJP.

The Deglur bypoll in central Maharashtra is a prestigious fight with BJP fielding Shiv Sena’s three-term MLA Subhash Sabne and the Congress nominating Jitesh Antapurkar.

The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party in Nagaland retained the Shamator-Chessore assembly seat after its candidate was elected unopposed.