Polling for the Assembly by-elections has commenced for 13 constituencies across seven states: Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh. Voting, which began at 7 am, will continue until 6 pm.
The constituencies involved in these by-elections are Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala in West Bengal; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.
Himachal Pradesh
In the Dehra segment of Kangra district, candidates include Kamlesh (53) from the Indian National Congress (INC), Hoshyar Singh (57) from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and independents Sulekha Devi (59), Arun Ankesh Syal (34), and Advocate Sanjay Sharma (56).
For the Hamirpur Assembly Constituency, candidates are Ashish Sharma (37) from the BJP, Dr. Pushpinder Verma (48) from the INC, and independents Pradeep Kumar (58) and Nand Lal Sharma (64).
In the Nalagarh segment, the contenders are Hardeep Singh Bawa (44) from the INC, KL Thakur (64) from the BJP, Kishori Lal Sharma (46) from the Swabhiman Party, and independents Gurnam Singh (48), Harpreet Singh (36), and Vijay Singh (36).
These seats became vacant after three independent MLAs resigned and joined the BJP.
West Bengal
In Maniktala, the BJP's Kalyan Chaubey is contesting against TMC's Supti Pande. In Ranaghat Dakshin, TMC's Mukut Mani Adhikari is running against the BJP candidate. In Bagda, TMC's Madhuparna Thakur is up against the BJP candidate. In Raiganj, the BJP's Krishna Kalyani faces the TMC candidate.
Punjab
For the Jalandhar West assembly seat, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has nominated Mohinder Bhagat, while the Congress has fielded Surinder Kaur. This seat was vacated following the resignation of AAP MLA Sheetal Angural on March 28, who then joined the BJP. Angural is now the BJP's candidate for the same seat.
