NEW DELHI : Counting of votes for three Lok Sabha and 29 assembly seats across 13 states and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli is underway. A turnout of 50 per cent to 80 per cent was recorded during voting in three Lok Sabha and 29 Assembly constituencies that went for by-elections. The assembly by-elections were held in five seats in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana.
Out of the 29 Assembly seats, the BJP held power in six, the Congress had nine, while the rest were with regional parties. The three Lok Sabha seats –Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh– had to go to bypolls after their sitting members died. The results of the electoral battle, that witnessed close fights between several political heavyweights, will decide the fate of prominent candidates like INLD leader Abhay Chautala, who quit the Haryana assembly in protest against the three new central agri laws, Congress’ Pratibha Singh, wife of late chief minister Virbhadra Singh, former national footballer Eugeneson Lyngdoh and ex-minister from Telangana Eatala Rajender. In Haryana, 80 per cent voting was reported in the bypolls to the Ellenabad Assembly constituency, necessitated by the resignation of INLD leader Abhay Chautala as MLA. Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, whose BJP MP Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan had died, saw a turnout of 63.88 per cent, while an around 64.60 per cent voting was recorded in the three Assembly seats. In Assam, 69.60 per cent turnout was recorded in five assembly constituencies, namely Gossaigaon, Bhabanipur, Tamulpur, Mariani and Thowra seats till 5 pm. aA higher percentage of votes — nearly 71 per cent — were polled till 5 pm in West Bengal’s four assembly constituencies.