Assembly By-Polls For Seven Seats: Majorly A 'BJP V/S Regional Party' Contest

Seven assembly constituencies of six states are voting for by-elections today (3 November). Let's have a bird's eye view of contests at these seats.

Adampur

Haryana's Adampur seat was vacated after the sitting Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned from the party, as well as the assembly.

He then joined BJP and now his son Bhavya Bishnoi is contesting on the BJP ticket. The Congress candidate is former Union minister Jai Prakash, while the AAP has placed its bet on Satender Singh.

AAP is most likely to play the role of a vote cutter for the Congress more than the BJP. While INLD has been reduced to insignificance, it has picked Congress rebel Kurda Ram Nambardar as its candidate.

This election will be a major indicator of the future of the Congress and the BJP in the state. If Congress wins, it can still rely on Bhupinder Singh Hooda's leadership, while a BJP win will strengthen the non-Jat politics of the party.

Andheri East

Maharashtra's Andheri East seat witnessed lots of ups and downs during the nomination filing process.

Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction's candidate Rutuja Latke could file nomination papers only on the last day as BMC accepted her resignation after the Bombay High Court's intervention. Rutuja is the wife of late Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.

While the BJP candidate Murji Patel withdrew his nomination, supposedly as a mark of reverence for Ramesh Latke.

NCP and Congress have supported Rutuja's candidature, while MNS leader Raj Thackeray too had pitched for an unopposed contest.

This sets Rutuja for a comfortable win as there are no major contenders. Her husband Ramesh Latke won this seat two times consecutively in the 2014 and 2019 assembly elections.

Gola Gokarn Nath

Uttar Pradesh's this assembly seat fell vacant after the death of the sitting BJP MLA Arvind Giri due to a heart attack. Now his son Aman Giri is contesting on the BJP ticket.

Samajwadi Party's (SP) candidate is Vinay Tiwari who has been contesting in this seat since 2012. He won once in 2012 and faced defeat at the hands of Arvind Giri in the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections.

Both candidates hail from the Brahmin community. The BSP and the Congress are keeping away from the poll making the contest a bipolar one. Which party gets the BSP votes will be a major deciding factor.

The BJP is taking this election very seriously as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself campaigned here. Whereas Akhilesh Yadav sent state unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel and other senior leaders for the campaign.

Gopalganj

Bihar's Gopalganj seat got vacant following the death of BJP MLA and former minister Subhash Singh. Now his wife Kusum Devi is contesting on the BJP ticket.

Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Mohan Prasad Gupta is the mahagathbandhan candidate. Making the contest a tripolar one, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has placed its bet on Indira Yadav.

In such a scenario, the RJD and BSP are likely to cut each other's votes while leaving a large chunk of votes for the BJP candidate.

Also, BJP's Subhash Singh was a four-time consecutive MLA from Gopalganj since 2005. This shows how strong the BJP is in this seat.

Mokama

Mokama is Bihar's second assembly seat going to the by-polls. It is witnessing a bipolar contest between the BJP and the RJD candidates.

Both the candidates are wives of the local strongmen. RJD's Neelam Devi is the wife of Anant Singh who was disqualified from the assembly following his conviction in an arms recovery case.

Singh has won the Mokama assembly seat four times consecutively since 2005. This shows his influence but BJP's campaigning has brought the contest to a close fight.

BJP's candidate is Sonam Devi. She is the wife of Lalan Singh who challenged Anant twice in 2005 and 2015. While Sonam Devi herself contested against Anant Singh in 2010 on an LJP ticket.

LJP leaders like Chirag Paswan, another strongman Surajbhan Singh and his wife Veena Devi have also campaigned for the BJP candidate.

Munugode

Southern Telangana's Munugode is witnessing a tripolar contest among Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), BJP and Congress.

BJP's candidate is Komatireddy Rajagopala Reddy who resigned as a Congress MLA and is seeking re-election now.

Congress has placed its bet on Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, who is the daughter of deceased Congress leader and former minister in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Palvai Govardhan Reddy.

Former MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy is the TRS candidate. This election is a chance for TRS to prove its comfortable position and deter the BJP's expansion.

While the Congress is trying to save its southern Telangana bastion, BJP is trying hard to win this election to make inroads in the region where it has an insignificant presence.

Dhamnagar

Odisha's Dhamnagar seat fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi. He was the first BJP candidate to have won in this seat. Now his son Suryabanshi Suraj is contesting on the BJP ticket.

Traditionally, this seat has rotated between Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress.

Abanti Das is the BJD candidate. She is the lone woman among the five candidates in the fray for the seat. The Congress candidate is Baba Harekrushna Sethy.

The Congress's vote share is on a decline in this seat and the party has not been able to secure a double-digit percentage of votes in the last two assembly elections.

Thus, the contest remains bipolar between the BJP and the BJD. The two parties were involved in a high-decibel campaign, accusing each other bitterly.