15 assembly seats in Kerala, Punjab, UP, and Uttarakhand to go for bypolls tomorrow

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Fifteen assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand will go for bypolls on Wednesday. The votes will be counted on November 23.

However, it will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies.

Polling will take place in several constituencies across UP, including Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur, and Kundarki, news agency PTI reported. A total of 90 candidates are contesting in these seats, with the highest number - 14 - standing in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test for both the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in this politically significant state since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2022 assembly elections, Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal, and Kundarki were won by the Samajwadi Party (SP), while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured victories in Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, and Khair. The Meerapur seat was won by BJP ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

By-elections will also be held for four assembly seats in Punjab: Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC), and Barnala, reported PTI. These by-elections were necessitated after the legislators representing these constituencies were elected to the Lok Sabha. Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, and Chabbewal were previously held by the Congress, while Barnala was represented by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

A total of 45 candidates, including three women, are contesting in these by-polls. Around 6.96 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots, PTI reported. The results of these by-elections will decide the fate of key contenders, including BJP's former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Congress's Amrita Warring, Jatinder Kaur, AAP's Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, Dr Ishank Kumar Chabbewal, and BJP's Kewal Singh Dhillon, Sohan Singh Thandal, and Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.

Warring is the wife of Punjab Congress chief and Ludhiana Member of Parliament (MP) Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, while Jatinder Kaur is married to Gurdaspur MP and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.

Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand. The by-election in Palakkad was called after Congress Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Shafi Parambil was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Vadakara constituency. The Kedarnath seat became vacant following the death of sitting BJP MLA Shailarani Rawat in July. Both BJP's Asha Nautiyal and Congress's Manoj Rawat have previously represented the Kedarnath Assembly seat. Nautiyal won it in 2002 and 2007 as a BJP candidate, while Shaila Rani Rawat, who had won it in 2012 on a Congress ticket, contested the seat as a BJP nominee in 2017 but lost to Manoj Rawat. She regained the seat from Manoj Rawat in 2022.

A total of 90,540 voters, including 45,775 women, are eligible to vote in the Kedarnath constituency.

(With PTI inputs)