4 LS, 10 ASSEMBLY SEATS SET TO GO TO BY-POLLS TODAY

KOLKATA: The stage is set for the bypolls to 4 Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats in as many as 10 states on Monday.

The ten seats where Assembly bypolls will be held are Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh), Maheshtala (West Bengal), Ampati (Meghalaya), Tharali (Uttarakhand), Chengannur (Kerala), Jokihat (Bihar), Gomia (Jharkhand), Silli (Jharkhand), Shahkot (Punjab) and Palus-kadegaon (Maharashtra).

The byelection will also take place in Palghar, Bhandara-gondiya (Maharashtra), Kairana (Uttar Pradesh), and Nagaland (Nagaland) Lok Sabha seats.

The bypolls were necessitated after the seats were left vacant following the death and retirement of their respective candidates.

One constituency, RR Nagar in Karnataka will also go to polls on Monday as earlier it had been countermanded due to alleged voter ID fraud in the first week of May.

The by-lection in Nagaland which was necessitated after the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) leader Neiphiu Rio, now chief minister of Nagaland, resigned as a Lok Sabha member in February.

It will be a test of strength between the candidate of the Naga People's Front (NPF) supported by Congress and the nominee of the ruling People's Democratic Alliance (PDA).

“As our primary concern is to save Nagaland from communal forces, we have agreed in principle to support Apok Jamir. We hope he will live up to the expectations of the party and uphold the principles of secularism and liberal democracy,” Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) chief K Therie said.

The bypoll in Mahestala Assembly seat in West Bengal will mainly witness a three-corner contest with the ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the Left Front in the fray.

In Jharkhand's Gomia Assembly seat, though there is a total of 13 candidates, but the main contest is between BJPS Madhavlal Singh, AJSU'S Lambodar Mahto and Jharkhand Mukti Morchas Babita Devi, wife of disqualified MLA Yogendra Mahto.

In Silli, also in Jharkhand, of the total ten candidates, the main contest will be between the former deputy chief minister and AJSU president Sudesh Mahto and Seema Mahto, wife of disqualified MLA Amit Mahto.

The by-poll in both Gomia and Silli Assembly seats were necessitated following the conviction of Yogendra Mahto (Gomia) and Amit Mahto (Silli). Both were elected on JMM tickets in the 2014 Assembly elections.

In Bihar, it would be another test of strength between Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and RJD of Lalu Prasad at Jokihat in Araria district.

The byelection to the Jokihat Assembly seat in Bihar has been necessitated due to the resignation of JD(U) MLA Sarfaraz Alam, who quit the party earlier this year and got elected on an RJD ticket to the Lok Sabha from Araria, a seat held by his late father Mohammad Taslimuddin.

Jokihat by-election comes about two months after the RJD succeeded in retaining the Araria Lok Sabha seat, defeating BJP'S Pradip Kumar.

The by-election in Meghalaya's Ampati seat will witness a fight between the Congress and the Bjp-backed National Peoples Party. An independent candidate is also in the fray.

Of particular significance will be bypolls to the Kairana Lok Sabha seat and the Noorpur Assembly seat, especially because the BJP had lost two prestigious Lok Sabha byelections in Uttar Pradesh in March.

With the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party joining hands, the BJP had to suffer defeats at Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies. They were both saffron bastions earlier, Gorakhpur being earlier represented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

Like Kairana, the Bhandara-gondiya and Palghar Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra are also going to be a prestige battle for BJP, as these seats were previously being held by the BJP.

By-election to Bhandaragondiya Lok Sabha seat was necessitated when in early December 2017, sitting member Nana Patole quit the BJP and the Lok Sabha seat to join the Congress, while the Palghar seat in north Konkan fell vacant after sitting BJP MP Chintaman Vanga died on 30 January following a heart attack.

Amid alliances, break-ups, and splits, the Sahkot bypoll in Punjab is emerging as a highoctane contest between Con- gress, the Shiromani Akali Dali (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Shahkot bypoll was necessitated following the death of SAD MLA Ajit Singh Kohar.

The Chengannur bypoll in Kerala has garnered a lot of attention with the BJP desperate to increase its presence in the communist heartland. The bypoll will be contested between a large number of candidates. The Chengannur by-election was necessitated after the death of CPM legislator KK Ramachandran Nair in January.

In Himachal Pradesh the Tharali Assembly bypoll is likely to be a straight contest between BJP and Congress. Bypolls here were necessitated after the death of BJP'S Mangal Shah.

Also going for polls on Monday is the Rajrajeswari Nagary Assembly seat in Karnataka, election for which was suspended following the recovery of nearly 10,000 voter ID cards from a flat in the constituency.

Both BJP and Congress had indulged in a blame game after officials said prima facie that most of the voter ID cards recovered seemed genuine.