Kolkata/Lucknow/Kottyam, Sep 7: The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition alliance INDIA against the BJP-led NDA ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The counting of votes is scheduled to begin at 8 am at centres set up in the respective states.
The seven seats — Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura — went to poll on September 5.
The by-election saw the INDIA alliance putting up a united front in the Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, where the voting was moderate at around 50.77 per cent, and in Jharkhand’s Dumri where a total of 64.84 per cent of 2.98 lakh voters exercised their franchise.
Out of the seven seats, three (Dhanpur, Bageshwar and Dhupguri) were held by the BJP and one each by the SP (Ghosi), CPI(M) (Boxanagar), JMM (Dumri) and the Congress (Puthuppally).
In Uttar Pradesh, the Ghosi seat fell vacant after the resignation of Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA and OBC leader Dara Singh Chauhan, who rejoined the BJP.
For the Bageshwar assembly bypoll in Uttarakhand, the counting will be done at 14 tables with 130 polling personnel on the job, District Magistrate Anuradha Pal said on Thursday. The Bageshwar seat fell vacant after the death of its MLA and cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das in April this year. He had won the seat four times since 2007.
In Jharkhand, INDIA bloc and NDA candidates are keeping their fingers crossed ahead of the counting to Dumri assembly bypolls. (PTI)
