Bypolls 2022: Voting Begins For By-Elections To 3 Lok Sabha, 7 Assembly Seats | Know State-Wise Updates

New Delhi: Voting began for the bypolls to three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats across six states on Thursday.  The three Lok Sabha seats going to the polls are Azamgarh and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and Sangrur in Punjab. The seven assembly seats are Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, Mandar in Jharkhand, Atmakur in Andhra Pradesh and Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma, and Jabarajnagar in Tripura. The Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after Samajwadi Party leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Mohammad Azam Khan won the assembly elections, respectively. One Lok Sabha seat is from Punjab which Bhagwant Mann left after becoming the chief minister of the state.

Among the seven assembly seats where bypolls will be held, Delhi's Rajendra Nagar seat has been left by Aam Aadmi Party's Raghav Chadha after becoming a Rajya Sabha member. The counting of votes will take place on June 26.

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State-wise voting update

Azamgarh: Voting started at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm. The vacancy has been created after Samajwadi Party’s (SP) MP Akhilesh Yadav got elected to the assembly. His father Mulayam Singh Yadav was an MP from the constituency before him. Therefore by-elections remain a prestige issue for the party.

Almost 1,149 polling stations and 2,176 polling places have been set up in Azamgarh, where 1,838,000 voters will be able to exercise their franchise.

BJP has once again fielded Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirhua' from this seat. SP has made former MP Dharmendra Yadav its candidate from Badaun. Apart from this, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has bet on former MLA Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali. A tough fight is expected believed to be between the three opponents.

A total of 13 candidates are trying their luck in this by-election in Azamgarh. Yadav and Muslim voters dominate the Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.

Yadav voters constitute 21 per cent while Muslim voters constitute 15 per cent. Apart from this, 20 per cent are Dalits and 18 per cent are non-Yadav voters from other backward classes.

In the last Lok Sabha elections held in the year 2019, SP and BSP contested in alliance and SP President Akhilesh Yadav defeated BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirhua by over 3 lakh votes from here.

Rampur- Voting began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm. The vacancy fell vacant after the main opposition SP MP Azam Khan from the Lok Sabha got elected to the assembly. Rampur has been the area of ​​influence of Azam Khan for a long time and the party has entrusted the by-election of the Rampur Lok Sabha seat to Khan. There are more than 17 lakh voters in the Rampur Lok Sabha constituency. There are 50 per cent Hindu voters and about 49 per cent Muslim voters. In the Lok Sabha elections held in the year 2019, SP candidate Azam Khan defeated BJP candidate Jaya Prada by a huge margin of over 1.5 lakh votes. In the Rampur Lok Sabha by-election, there is a direct contest between Asim Raja of SP and Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi of BJP. Lodhi, who recently joined BJP, was earlier close to Azam Khan.

VIP Voters 

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi exercised his right to vote today.

Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam- Expected to vote after 12 noon

Begum Noor Bano (former MP and daughter-in-law of Nawab Gharana) – Time not confirmed 

Nawab Kazim Ali Khan – Will vote around 9-10 am

Sangrur – Polling in Punjab’s Sangrur is scheduled for 8 am to 6 pm. The seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann resigned from the membership of the Lok Sabha after becoming the state chief minister. There are chances of multi-cornered competition here.

The Lok Sabha constituency has 15,69,240 eligible voters including 8,30,056 males, 7,39,140 females and 44 transgenders. A total of 16 candidates are in the fray, of which 13 are men and three are women. The AAP has fielded the party's Sangrur district in-charge Gurmel Singh, while the Congress has bet on former Dhuri MLA Dalveer Singh Goldie. The BJP has fielded former Barnala MLA Kewal Dhillon, who joined the party on June 4. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann is also in the fray. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has given a ticket to Kamaldeep Kaur, sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the murder case of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.

Assembly seat

Rajendra Nagar- Voting in Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar will be held from 7 am to 5 pm. The Rajendra Nagar assembly seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raghav Chadha resigned after being elected as the Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab. Durgesh Pathak from AAP, Rajesh Bhatia from BJP and Premlata from Congress are in the fray.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha – was expected to vote at 9 am Vidya Bhawan, GSSS New Rajinder Nagar

BJP MP Gautam Gambhir - Will vote at 10.45 am. The polling booth (PS39) is near the MP residence.

AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak – Voting time not known

Tripura

By-elections to four assembly seats in Tripura began at 7 AM on Thursday amid tight security arrangements, an election official said. Polling to the Agartala, Town Bardowali, Surma, and Jubarajnagar seats is taking place in 221 booths, and it will continue till 5 PM.  A total of 25 companies of central forces, apart from Tripura State Rifles (TSR) have been deployed. As many as 1,89,032 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of 25 candidates in the fray.

Tripura CM Manik Saha has cast his vote at a polling station in the Town Bordowali assembly constituency on Thursday morning

The by-elections in Agartala and Town Bardowali constituencies were necessitated after Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha quit as BJP MLAs and joined the Congress in February.

Surma seat in Dhalai district fell vacant after BJP legislator, Asish Das, was disqualified by Speaker Ratan Chakraborty and bypoll to Jubarajnagar was necessitated following the death of sitting CPI(M) MLA Ramendra Chandra Debnath.

Andhra Pradesh

The Atmakur sear in AP fell vacant after MLA Mekapati Goutham Reddy died. The YSR Congress has nominated his brother Vikram Reddy. The TDP is not contesting and the BJP has fielded G Bharat Kumar Yadav.

Jharkhand

In Jharkhand’s Mandar, vacated after former minister Bandhu Tirkey was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, the Congress has fielded Tirkey’s daughter Shilpi Neha while the BJP has fielded Gangotri Kujur