Bypolls 2024: Bypolls in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand will be held on Wednesday, November 20.
Voting will begin at 7am, while the counting of votes will be held on November 23.
In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad.
A total of 34,35,974 voters are eligible to cast their votes, including 18,46,846 men, 15,88,967 women, and 161 third-gender voters. Ghaziabad has the highest voter count, while Sisamau has the lowest.
This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc and the NDA in the politically crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki were won by the SP, while the BJP won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair. The Meerapur seat was won by BJP ally RLD.
In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats – Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala
The bypolls were necessitated after the MLAs representing the seats were elected to the Lok Sabha in the general elections held earlier this year.
Of the four assembly segments, Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak and Chabbewal were earlier held by the Congress, and the Barnala seat by the AAP.
The bypolls will decide the fate of key contestants, including BJP nominee and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Congress’s Amrita Warring, Jatinder Kaur, AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, Dr Ishank Kumar Chabbewal and BJP’s Kewal Singh Dhillon, Sohan Singh Thandal and Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.
Amrita Warring is the wife of Punjab Congress chief and Ludhiana MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. Jatinder Kaur is the spouse of Gurdaspur MP and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
Besides Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, bypolls will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
The bypoll in Palakkad was necessitated after the Congress MLA of the constituency, Shafi Parambil, got elected to the Lok Sabha from the Vadakara constituency.
The Kedarnath seat fell vacant after the death of sitting BJP MLA Shailarani Rawat in July.