Elections: UP's Rampur among 51 assembly constituencies going to bypolls today

Along with assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, 51 assembly constituencies spread across 17 states of the country will go to bypolls on Monday.

Bypolls will also take place in two Lok Sabha seats one each in Maharashtra (Satara) and Bihar (Samastipur).

The elections are significant as it is the first assembly polls after Modi led the BJP-led NDA to a resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year for a successive second term in office.

The maximum numbers of seats going to bypolls are in Uttar Pradesh where voters will be choosing their MLA on 11 seats. These seats are Pratapgarh, Zaidpur (SC), Balha (SC), Rampur, Iglas (SC), Lucknow Cantonment, Manikpur, Jalalpur, Ghosi, Gangoh, and Govind Nagar.

The assembly bypolls were necessitated after some MLAs won the Lok Sabha elections and resigned as members of the state assembly. Ghosi assembly seat fell vacant following the resignation of MLA Phagu Chauhan after he was appointed the Governor of Bihar.

Of the 11 seats, eight were held earlier by the BJP and Pratapgarh was represented by BJP-ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). The seats of Rampur and Jalalpur (Ambedkarnagar) were held by the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, respectively.

The maximum candidates, 13 each, are from Lucknow Cantonment and Jalalpur assembly constituencies, followed by 12 in Ghosi and 11 each in Gangoh, Pratapgarh and Balha (SC).

Nine candidates each are in the fray in Govindnagar and Manikpur. Seven candidates each will contest the bypolls from Rampur, Iglas (SC) and Zaidpur (SC).

Among, these Rampur bye-polls for the Rampur seat has seen the heated war of words between BJP leader Jaya Prada and her Lok Sabha elections rival Azam Khan. Considered as a bastion of Samajwadi party and its senior leader Azam Khan, the seat got vacant after Khan elected to Lok Sabha from Rampur Parliamentary seat and now his wife Tanzim Fatima is SP candidate here in the bye-election.

BJP has fielded Bharat Bhooshan from the seat and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held three rallies in his favour. SP chief Akhilesh also campaigned for Khan's wife.

Five assembly constituencies are also going to bypolls in Bihar namely Kishanganj, Simri Bakhtiarpur, Daraunda, Nathnagar and Belhar.

In Himachal Pradesh, More than 82,000 voters in Dharmshala and over 74,000 voters in Pacchad assembly constituency will exercise their franchise in the upcoming bye-elections, according to the Election Commission.

The bye-elections for the two Assembly seats are scheduled to be held on October 21. Interestingly, the two constituencies in total have eight centenarian voters including five in Pachhad and three in Dharmshala.

In Assam, bye-elections are being conducted for four constituencies namely Rangapara, Sonari, Ratabari and Jania. As many as 20 contestants are in the fray for these four seats.

Four assembly constituencies in Punjab -- Phagwara, Mukerian, Dhaka, and Jalalabad - are also going to bypolls today.

Bye-election is taking on two constituencies in Rajasthan namely Mandawa and Khinwsar. Congress has fielded Rita Chaudhary from Mandawa and Harendra Mirdha from Khinwsar.

Khonsa (West) assembly constituency of Arunachal Pradesh will also vote in the bye-elections.

Chitrakot assembly constituency of Chhattisgarh, Jhabua (ST) in Madhya Pradesh, Bijepur in Odisha, Kamraj Nagar in Pudducherry, Shella in Meghalaya and Huzurnagar in Telangana.

The polling for all these seats will start at 7 AM and will last till 6 PM. The votes will be counted on October 24.