Assembly bypolls begin on 13 Assembly seats across 7 states

NEW DELHI: Polling for the Assembly by-polls has started for 13 Assembly constituencies across seven states: Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.

The polling process that started at 7 am will conclude at 6 pm.

Assembly by-polls are being held in West Bengal's Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.

Himachal Pradesh

In the Dehra segment of Kangra district, Kamlesh (53) of the Indian National Congress (INC), Hoshyar Singh (57) of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Independent candidates Sulekha Devi (59), Arun Ankesh Syal (34) and Advocate Sanjay Sharma (56) are in the fray.

According to the official, Ashish Sharma (37) of BJP, Dr Pushpinder Verma (48) of INC and Independent candidates Pradeep Kumar (58) and Nand Lal Sharma (64) are in the fray from Hamirpur Assembly Constituency.

For the Nalagarh segment, Hardeep Singh Bawa (44) of INC, KL Thakur (64) of BJP, Kishori Lal Sharma (46) of Swabhiman Party and Independent candidates Gurnam Singh (48), Harpreet Singh (36) and Vijay Singh (36) are in the fray.

The Hamirpur, Nalagarh, and Dehra assembly segments fell vacant after the Speaker accepted the resignation of three independent MLAs who resigned from the House and joined the BJP.

West Bengal

In Maniktala, BJP has fielded Kalyan Chaubey, who will be contesting against TMC's Supti Pande.In Ranaghat Dakshin, TMC has fielded Mukut Mani Adhikari against the BJP candidate.In Bagdah, TMC has pitted Madhuparna Thakur against the BJP's candidate.In Raiganj, the BJP has fielded Krishna Kalyani as its candidate against TMC candidate.

Punjab

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced Mohinder Bhagat as the party's candidate for the by-polls on the Jalandhar West assembly seat while the Congress has announced Surinder Kaur as their party's candidate from the constituency.

The seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sheetal Angural's resignation. Angural resigned on March 28. He has been announced as the BJP's candidate from the same seat. Angural had stepped down as AAP MLA after joining BJP along with former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku in March.