New Delhi: Counting of votes for the recently held by-elections for 5 seats in 4 states is underway. The fate of high-profile candidates like Shatrughan Sinha and Babul Supriyo will be decided today. Both are TMC nominees and fought the elections from Asansol LS constituency and Ballygunge Assembly seat respectively.
Other constituencies which went to by-polls include Khairagarh in Chattisgarh, Bochachan in Bihar and Kolhapur North in Maharashtra.
Bengal
In Mamata-ruled Bengal, the initial trends is a shot in the arm for Trinamool Congress as its both nominees are leading in respective constituencies.
Shatrughan Sinha is leading from Asansol Lok Sabha seat while Babul Supriyo who switched from BJP to TMC is marching ahead of rivals in Ballygnge Assembly seat.
Check the data of Lok Sabha seat on the EC website:
Asansol LS seat is a jinxed seat for TMC as it has never won this seat. In previous elections, BJP grabbed this seat. Shatrughan is facing strong fight from BJP’s Agnimitra Paul, a designer-turned MLA. Asansol seat became vacant after Babul Supriyo switching loyalties to Didi, months ago. In Ballygunge, it’s a triangular contest between BJP, CPI(M) and TMC.
Bihar
In Bochahan seat, Tejashwi Yadav-led RJD has taken initial lead against the rivals. RJD nominee Amar Kumar Paswan is leading by over 11,000 votes over nearest rival Baby Kumari of BJP.
The seat has a sizeable population of Dalits & extremely backward castes and ground reports say that they are not happy with BJP. Though the saffron party fielded Baby Kumari, having an image of ‘giant slayer’, the initial trends show it otherwise. BJP candidate is trailing by a good margin of over 10,000 votes.
Maharashtra
In the Kolhapur North Assembly seat in Maharashtra, more than 15 candidates were in fray but it’s the Congress candidate which has surged ahead of rivals. Main fight is between BJP & Congress here. Till last reports, Cong candidate was leading by over 3,000 votes.
Chhattisgarh
In Chattisgarh’s Khairagarh, the bypoll became important after the death of Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) MLA Devwrat Singh in November 2022. Notably, the Khairagarh constituency comes under the Rajnandgaon district.
