Assembly by-polls: Voting begins in 13 seats in seven states, including Bengal, Punjab, Tamil Nadu

Voting began on Wednesday for by-elections in 13 constituencies in seven states, marking the first electoral campaigns since India’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections concluded in June.

The constituencies that will be contesting the by-elections are Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Baghda and Maniktala (West Bengal); Dera, Hamirpur and Nalagarh (Himachal Pradesh); Badrinath and Manglar (Uttarakhand); Jalandhar West (Punjab); Rupauli (Bihar); Vikravandi (Tamil Nadu) and Amarwala (Madhya Pradesh).

Polling will begin at 7 am and continue till 6 pm in all constituencies.

West Bengal

In West Bengal, three of these constituencies — Maniktala in Kolkata, Ranaghat Dakshin and Bagda in North 24 Parghanth — are in the southern part of the state, while the fourth, Raiganj, is in the northern part of Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district.

These four constituencies in the state have around one million voters.

The Election Commission has deployed around 70 companies of security forces to guard 1,097 polling stations across four seats. The counting of votes will take place on July 13.

Bihar

In Bihar, over 30 lakh voters will decide the electoral fate of 11 candidates.

The by-election was necessitated by the resignation of incumbent MP Bima Bharti, who had won the seat multiple times for the JD(U) but stepped down to run as an RJD candidate in this year’s general elections.

She lost her deposit in the Assembly elections and is now running again in the by-elections as an RJD candidate. The JD(U) has fielded Kaladar Prasad Mandal, who ran as an independent from Rupauli in the 2020 state assembly elections. Former state legislator Shankar Singh, who quit Union minister Chirag Paswan’s LJP (Ram Vilas) party, is also running as an independent.

(With input from relevant agencies)