In Madhya Pradesh, 22 out of 28 seats were vacated after the Jyotiraditya Scindia crossing in March. (Archive)
New Delhi:
The results of the by-elections to 56 Assembly seats (and a Lok Sabha) in a dozen states will be announced today, and the contests in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are among the most compelling. Half of the vacant seats are in Madhya Pradesh, where many will see the result as a comment on the BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia and the influence it may (or may not) wield since resigning from Congress in March. Seven seats will be filled in UP, highlighting that of Kuldeep Singh Sengar of the BJP; it was vacated after he was convicted in the Unnao rape case in December last year. Other states where by-elections were held on November 3 include Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha and Telangana. By-elections for seats in Manipur and a Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar were held on 7 November. All elections were held amid strict restrictions due to the Covid pandemic.
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22 of the 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh were vacated after the Jyotiraditya Scindia crossing in March, prompting the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the return of the BJP. He is expected to ensure that MLAs who resigned to support him are re-elected. 16 of these seats are from the Gwalior and Chambal regions of the state, which are widely regarded as strongholds of the Scindia family. The big news during the campaign was the comment on Kamal Nath’s “article” about a former congressional minister. The Electoral Commission dismissed him as a “star activist,” but the Supreme Court put that order on hold.
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The result is unlikely to affect the government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Congress must win all 28 to even think about challenging the BJP. However, in politics, power and prestige go hand in hand and Congress will be eager to regain as many seats as possible given up to reassert itself in the state. The BJP needs to win nine to claim a simple majority; it is currently backed by smaller, independent parties. Voting in the state was largely peaceful, save for two reports of shots being fired at Morena Sumawali’s seat.
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In UP, the Samajwadi Party has accused the BJP of fraud and election manipulation. The head of the SP, Akhilesh Yadav, told the PTI news agency that the government of Yogi Adityanath had “made an arrangement so that the people could not cast their votes.” However, Yadav declined to give details. It said it will provide “detailed information” after the results are declared. Yogi Adityanath, criticized for a poor record on women’s safety, spoke about “love jihad” while campaigning and launched a thinly veiled threat of violence.
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The high-profile seat in UP is Bangarmau, which was held by the BJP’s Kuldeep Singh Sengar until his conviction in the Unnao rape case in December last year. The Ghatampur seat was left vacant after the death of Kamal Rani Varun, a minister of state and a victim of the new coronavirus. The bypoll also marked the electoral debut of Bhim’s army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, who has been fiercely critical of the Yogi Adityanath government for the alleged gang rape in the state’s Hathras district, and whose convoy has reportedly was shot last month while campaigning for the Bulandshahr seat. .
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There are two seats up for grabs in Karnataka – Sira in Tumakuru district and Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru – with Congress, the JDS and the BJP competing with each other in both. The result will not make a real difference, the BJP will remain in power, but the contest between the former JDS allies and Congress will be watched. All three parties have been filled with confidence and each believes they will win both seats.
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In Gujarat there are eight seats to fill. All eight were retained by Congress, but were left vacant after incumbents were uploaded to the BJP before the Rajya Sabha elections in June. Five of the eight BJP candidates in this election are former congressional leaders seeking to regain the seats they lost. Congress, meanwhile, also alleged a “cash for votes” scam in at least two booths and filed a complaint with the Elections Officer.
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The Odisha Assembly has two vacant seats: Balasore (held by the BJP) and Tirol (held by the ruling BJD). Other by-elections on November 3 were for one seat each in Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
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In Chattisgarh, Marwahi’s seat was left vacant after the death of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and will see a fight between Congress and the BJP. In Telangana there will be a three-way fight for the Dubbak seat between the BJP, the ruling TRS and Congress.
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By-elections were also held for two seats in Nagaland, two in Jharkhand and one in Haryana. The BJP sent Olympic wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt in the race for the Baroda post in Haryana’s Sonipat district; Dutt had lost the same seat in last year’s Assembly elections to Krishnan Hooda in Congress, who died in April.
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On November 7, four seats in Manipur went to the polls. This was after incumbents in Congress resigned to join the BJP. A bypoll was also held for the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha headquarters in Bihar; the seat was vacated after JDU’s Baidyanath Mahto died in February.
With input from PTI
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