New Delhi. Voting in the first phase for 43 seats of Jharkhand Assembly will be held on Wednesday. Also, voting for the first phase of by-elections will also be held on Wednesday, September 13. Due to the Election Commission, this time the by-elections are also being held in two phases. In the first phase, by-elections will be held on Wednesday for 31 assembly constituencies of 10 states and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat of Kerala. By-elections to Palakkad Assembly of Kerala along with 14 Assemblies of four states and one Lok Sabha will be held on September 20.
On October 30, both the candidates of the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha were declared victorious unopposed on the two assembly seats of Sikkim. On the other hand, Wayanad Lok Sabha seat of Kerala has become vacant due to the resignation of Rahul Gandhi, where his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is contesting the elections for the first time on Congress ticket. He is contesting against CPI’s Satyan Mokeri and BJP’s Navya Haridas.
Apart from this, out of 31 assembly seats of the 10 states for which by-elections are being held, 28 seats have become vacant due to MLAs becoming MPs in the Lok Sabha elections, death of two and defection of one. Of these, four seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and six seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribe. The opposition won 18 out of 31 seats. Of these, Congress alone had nine seats. Whereas, NDA had won 11 seats. Seven of these MLAs were from BJP, while two seats were won by others.
However, voting will be held on 43 out of 81 seats of Jharkhand Assembly on Wednesday. A total of 28 seats in the state are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, out of which 20 will go to polls in the first phase. BJP had won only two of these seats last time. However, in the voting taking place on 43 seats in 15 districts, BJP has the maximum number of 36 candidates. Four candidates from its ally AJSU, two from Janata Dal U and one from Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party are in the fray. On the other hand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is contesting on 23 seats and Congress on 17 seats. These ally RJD is fighting on five seats. Its two candidates are contesting against the alliance. A total of 683 candidates are in the election fray.