Shillong, May 10: Voting for four assembly segments in three states including Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha is underway. Voting for a Lok Sabha seat in Punjab is also taking place today.
In the assembly constituencies of Suar and Chhanbey in Uttar Pradesh, Jharsuguda in Odisha, and Sohiong in Meghalaya, voting started in morning. The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in Punjab also opened for voting at 8 am.
In Meghalaya, polling is underway in Sohiong, where a bypoll was necessitated due to the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the assembly elections held in the rest of the state on February 27. Polling to Sohiong was then postponed due to Lyngdoh’s death.
The Congressman MP from Jalandhar, Santokh Singh Chaudhary, passed away, leaving the seat vacant. In January of this year, he had a heart arrest while participating in the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar’s Phillaur. With the AAP, BJP, Congress, and Shiromani Akali Dal attempting to outdo one other in the Dalit heartland, the seat is anticipated to see a four-cornered struggle.
There is a contest between the BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party in the Uttar Pradesh seats of Suar and Chhanbey. Although the results won’t significantly change how the assembly is organised, they will give the winner more confidence before the Lok Sabha election the following year.
The Congress has only run a candidate in Chhanbey, while the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party has decided not to run in the by-elections.
