All eyes are on Wednesday’s important by-elections in 31 assembly constituencies spanning 10 states and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat. The Jharkhand assembly elections’ first phase will include the by-elections.Ahead of the assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, the by-elections are viewed as a litmus test for the opposition INDIA alliance and the BJP-led NDA. Due to members’ abandoned seats following their victory in the Lok Sabha seats, the majority of by-elections are being held. Due to the passing of their respective members, some constituencies are holding by-elections.
Seven Rajasthani seats, six West Bengal seats, five Assamese seats, four Bihar seats, three Karnataka seats, two Madhya Pradesh seats, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Meghalaya will go to the polls.Voting was originally planned for nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Punjab, and one additional seat in Kerala; however, the Election Commission postponed these elections to November 20.Following the withdrawal of their opponents, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) nominees Aditya Golay and Satish Chandra Rai have already been deemed unopposed in the Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang seats.
Kerala’s Wayanad is the most prominent Lok Sabha seat up for election. In this constituency, Congress national secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be running for office for the first time. After her brother Rahul Gandhi decided to represent Raebareli in the Lok Sabha and abandoned the seat, a by-election was required. Vadra is up against Navya Haridas of the NDA, Sathyan Mokeri of the LDF, and thirteen other people. Rahul won by more than 3.5 lakh votes this year, compared to more than 4.3 lakh votes in 2019. The seats of Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar, and Ramgarh in Rajasthan will all have by-elections.
West Bengal will have six seats up for grabs: Taldangra, Sitai-SC, Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, and Madarihat. Five of these were won by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the assembly elections of 2021. The BJP retained the seat of Madarihat.
There are 34 people running for Assam’s five seats: Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon, and Sidli. Since the Congress decided to field their candidate at the last minute and disagreed with the alliance’s resolution to award the seat to CPI(ML) Liberation, the INDIA bloc was unable to build on a consensus while choosing the candidate for Behali.
There will be by-elections in Bihar in Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj, and Belaganj. Ahead of next year’s assembly elections, the elections are viewed as a litmus test for the NDA and INDIA alliance.
There will be by-elections in Channapatna, Shiggaon, and Sandur, Karnataka. Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the leader of the JD(S), is running from Channapatna, a seat left empty by his father, Union minister H D Kumaraswamy, who was elected to the Lok Sabha.
The seats of Budhni and Vijaypur in Madhya Pradesh will be up for by-election. In Madhya Pradesh, elections will also be held in the assembly seats of Budhni and Vijaypur. After former Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was appointed a minister in the Mohan Yadav government, a by-election to the Vijaypur seat in the Sheopur district was required.
Since former chief minister and MLA Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha and is currently the Union Agriculture Minister, a by-election is being held to fill the Budhni seat.
The remaining seats up for by-election are Gambegre (ST) in Meghalaya, Vav in Gujarat, Raipur City South in Chhattisgarh, and Chelakkara in Kerala.
On November 23, the votes in the byolls will be counted.
