Voting begins for bypolls on 2 Assembly, 3 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan and West Bengal

Voting for the by-elections in two Assembly and three parliamentary constituencies in Rajasthan and West Bengal began 8 am today amid tight security. 

While the bypolls for Lok Sabha seats of Ajmer and Alwar, and the Assembly seat of Mandalgarh are being touted as a litmus test for Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje ahead of state polls, elections for Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency and Noapara Assembly seat in West Bengal will test the popularity of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Counting for all seats is slated to take place on February 1.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan: Voting for Alwar Lok Sabha seat by-poll begins; Visuals from a polling booth in Subhash Nagar pic.twitter.com/ehChdq4e1o

— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2018

Over 38 lakh voters will decide the fate of 41 candidates for bypolls to two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seat. In a first, EVM machines with photos of candidates on them would be used for polling, which would take place from 8am to 6pm.

Eleven candidates in Alwar, 23 in Ajmer and 8 candidates in Mandalgarh are in the fray.

Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats, and the Mandalgarh Assembly seat fell vacant due to the deaths of Ajmer MP Sanwar Lal Jat, Alwar MP Chand Nath and Mandalgarh MLA Kirti Kumari (all of the BJP) last year.

The BJP has fielded Labour Minister Jaswant Singh Yadav and former Union minister Sanwar Lal Jat's son Ramswaroop Lamba for the Alwar and the Ajmer Lok Sabha seats, respectively, while Shakti Singh Hada is contesting the bypoll as BJP's candidate from the Mandalgarh Assembly constituency in Bhilwara district.

The Congress named Vivek Dhakad as it's candidate for the Mandalgarh Assembly constituency, former MLA Raghu Sharma for the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat and Karan Singh Yadav for the Alwar Lok Sabha constituency.

West Bengal

West Bengal: Voting for #Uluberia Lok Sabha seat by-poll has commenced (Earlier visuals) pic.twitter.com/uLwgyAAg1p

— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2018

The bypolls in Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency and Noapara Assembly seat in West Bengal are said to be a direct fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, even as the CPI(M) is trying hard to hold its ground in its erstwhile bastions.

The elections were necessitated following the deaths of Sultan Ahmed, the sitting TMC MP from Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency in Howrah district, and Madhusudan Ghose, Congress MLA from Noapara assembly seat in North 24 Parganas district.

The TMC, which has held Uluberia seat since 2009, has fielded Sultan Ahmed's wife Sajda this time. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has nominated Sabiruddin Molla whereas the Congress has fielded S K Madassar Hossain Warsi.

The BJP is the only party to field Hindu candidate Anupam Mallik from the seat. Five other independents are also in the fray from the Lok Sabha constituency.

In Noapara, the TMC has fielded Sunil Singh, the CPI(M) Gargi Chatterjee. Goutam Bose of the Congress and Sandip Banerjee of the BJP are the other contestants from the seat.

Uluberia is one of the Lok Sabha seats in the state with nearly 40% Muslim population. The RSS and the BJP made inroads into the constituency following a communal flare-up at Dhulagarh, around 16km from Uluberia, in 2016.

(With PTI inputs)