Bypolls draw to a close, parties wait for signals ahead of 2019

In the last round of Lok Sabha bypolls ahead of the 2019 general election, Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Palghar and BhandaraGondia in Maharashtra, and Nagaland will see new Members of Parliament elected on Thursday.

The bypolls — which saw the entire opposition close ranks against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, and its traditional ally Shiv Sena pitted against it in Maharashtra and the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joining hands — are being widely watched for its larger national political message and impact on alliances. Polling for the four Lok Sabha seats and nine assembly constituencies in Bihar (Jokihat), UP (Noorpur), Meghalaya (Ampati), West Bengal (Maheshtala), Uttarakhand (Tharali), Jharkhand (Gomia and Silli), Kerala (Chengannur), and Punjab (Shahkot), were held on May 28. In Maharashtra’s Palus Kadegaon, the Congress candidate was elected unopposed.

The polling was accompanied by widespread charges by the opposition parties about the malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verficiation Audit Paper Trial Machines. The Election Commission dismissed the reports as ‘exaggerated’, clarified that 96 ballot units, 84 control units of EVMs and 1202 VVPATs had to be replaced. There were fresh elections at 73 booths in Kairana, 49 booths in Bhandara-Gondia and one booth in Nagaland on Wednesday.

All eyes are now on the outcome, especially in UP, where the BJP recently lost Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls. In Kairana, the Ajit Singh-Jayant Chaudhary led Rashtriya Lok Dal’s candidate Tabassum Hasan was supported by the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress, which did not put up candidates. The bypoll was necessitated after BJP candidate Mriganka Singh, daughter of former MP Hukum Singh, passed away.

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