Bypolls 2023: The voting for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly constituencies of Suar and Chhanbey in the bypolls began on Wednesday morning.
In the by-elections, the coalition that is in charge and the Samajwadi Party that is in opposition are directly competing.
Even though the results won’t change how the assembly is set up immediately, they will help the winner get ready for the Lok Sabha election next year.
Officials said that voting will take place from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Election Commission has set up 774 polling places at 492 polling centers in the two constituencies, with 6. 62 lakh (3.51 million letters, 11 lakh female and 82 third gender) eligible voters.
There are a total of 14 candidates competing, with six from Suar and eight from Chhanbey.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, which is led by Mayawati, has decided not to run in the by-elections, and the Congress has only put forward a candidate for Chhanbey.
The campaign for the two seats in the districts of Rampur and Mirzapur has been lackluster due to leaders either campaigning in Karnataka or participating in the elections for urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh.
However, the Suar seat in Rampur district, which was held by Abdullah Azam Khan, the son of senior SP leader Azam Khan, before it was declared vacant on February 13 after the young leader was sentenced to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case, will be the focus of attention.
The Allahabad High Court also overturned his election in the previous assembly in 2020 due to his inability to accurately state his age in the affidavit.
While the Apna Dal (Sonelal), an ally of the ruling BJP, is leaving no stone unturned to breach it, especially after the saffron party managed to snatch the Rampur assembly and parliamentary seats, both of which were Azam Khan’s stronghold, the Samajwadi Party is going to great lengths to defend what can be considered its last citadel in Rampur.
Azam Khan received a three-year prison sentence in a case involving hate speech, which resulted in his exclusion from the Assembly the previous year.
On the Suar sear, Abdullah Azam Khan defeated Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s Haidar Ali Khan by a margin of over 61,000 votes in the 2022 UP Assembly election.
The counting of votes will occur on May 13.
Stage set for Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C on Tuesday stated that all necessary preparations have been made to ensure a peaceful, free, and fair by-election to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.
On Wednesday, voting for the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency got underway at 8 a.m. and will last until 6 p.m.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha (saved) seat fell vacant following the passing of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. During the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar’s Phillaur in January of this year, he suffered a cardiac arrest.
The CEO stated in an interview with the media that the constituency has a total of 16,21,800 eligible voters, with 8,44,904 males, 7,76,855 females, and 41 transgender individuals.
There are currently 19 candidates, four of whom are women. On May 13, the counting will take place.
There are a total of 1,972 polling places, and all of them will be broadcast via the internet.
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