NEW DELHI: The counting of votes for the seven Assembly seats across six states that went to bypolls on Tuesday, began at 8 am at the centres set up in the respective states on Friday.
The seven seats are Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura.
While the Bageshwar, Dhupguri and Dhanpur seats were held by the BJP, the Ghosi seat was held by the Samajwadi Party, Boxanagar by Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dumri by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Puthuppally by the Congress.
Dhupguri in West Bengal
The polling for the by-election was held on September 5. A voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded.
The counting was being held at the Jalpaiguri II campus of the North Bengal University.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Bishnu Pada Ray on July 25.
Uttarakhand: Bageshwar bypoll
The votes are being counted at the Bageshwar Degree College where 14 tables have been set up and 130 polling personnel are on the job, Bageshwar District Magistrate Anuradha Pal said.
Polling to the reserved SC seat in the Kumaon division was held on September 5 when 55.44 per cent of the nearly 1.2 lakh voters exercised their franchise.
The seat fell vacant after the death of MLA and cabinet minister Chandan Ram Das in April this year. He represented the constituency four times since 2007.
There are five candidates in the fray — Das’ wife Parvati Das of the BJP, Basant Kumar of the Congress, Bhagvati Prasad of the Samajwadi Party, Arjun Dev of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and Bhagwat Kohli of the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party.
The seat has seen straight contests between arch rivals BJP and Congress in successive elections over the years.
Tripura bypoll: BJP candidates leading
The BJP candidates in both the seats have taken an early lead, election officials said on Friday.
BJP candidates Taffajal Hossain in Boxanagar and Bindu Debnath in Dhanpur are leading by around 1,000 votes over their CPI-M rivals Mizan Hossain and Kaushik Chanda, respectively.
“After the completion of counting of postal ballots, counting of votes stored in the EVMs would be taken up,” the poll officials said.
BJP takes early lead in Ghosi bypoll in UP
The counting of votes for the by-election to the Ghosi Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh began on Friday, with the BJP already establishing an early lead.
Polling for the by-election took place on Tuesday.
The BJP has fielded Dara Singh Chauhan, while the SP candidate is Sudhakar Singh.
The counting of votes will take place in 32 rounds, said election officials.The entire process involving 19 teams will take place under surveillance of CCTV cameras.
Dumri bypoll in Jharkhand
The delay of around 10 minutes in counting happened as official formalities took some time to complete amid heavy rains in the area.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of JMM MLA Jagarnath Mahto, the state’s Education Minister, in April. He had been representing the seat since 2004.
The JMM has fielded Mahto’s wife Bebi Devi as the candidate of the INDIA bloc, while the AJSU Party has nominated Yashoda as the NDA candidate.