Bypolls

Bypolls to six vacant Rajya Sabha seats in four states to be held on Dec 20

Bypolls to six vacancies in Rajya Sabha across four states will be held on December 20, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday. Three vacancies were created in Andhra Pradesh when YSRCP members Venkataramana Rao Mopidevi, Beedha Masthan Rao Yadav and Ryaga Krishnaiah had quit their membership in August. The terms of Yadav and Krishnaiah as Rajya Sabha members were to end on June 21, 2028, while Mopidevi was to retire on 21 June, 2026. A vacancy occurred in Odisha when Sujeet Kumar quit his seat following which he was expelled by the Biju Janata Dal. His term was to end on April 2, 2026. Jawhar Sircar of the TMC had resigned in April following the rape-murder of a woman doctor in Kolkata, creating a vacancy in the state. He was otherwise to retire in April 2026. Krishan Lal Panwar of the BJP had quit his Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana following his election as an MLA in the recent state polls. After the recent assembly polls, TDP in Andhra Pradesh and BJP in Odisha will have a

Tejashwi may skip winter session out of shame post bypoll result: JD(U)

JD(U) spokesman and MLC Neeraj Kumar on Sunday took a dig at Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly, claiming that the RJD leader may give the winter session a slip out of "political shame". Kumar's comments in a video message came a day after the NDA, of which the party is a crucial partner, swept by-elections to four assembly seats in the state, retaining Imamganj and wresting from the INDIA bloc Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj. The RJD lost two seats, thereby getting deprived of the "single-largest party" status in the 243-strong assembly that Yadav and his colleagues prided themselves on. Kumar also recalled Yadav's absence during the monsoon session, asserting that the latter had played truant because of "raajneetik lajja (political shame)" resulting from the Lok Sabha polls. The NDA, which won back Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, earlier this year, bagged 30 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The RJD, which is INDIA bloc's larges

NDA tastes bypoll success in Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya; WB remains elusive

The juggernaut of the BJP-led NDA, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's TMC registered a six-on-six clean sweep. In its process of continuing to deny the BJP its coveted foothold in the state's political theatre, the TMC retained five of the six seats it had previously won during the 2021 polls, while wresting the key Madarihat seat from the saffron camp in north Bengal's Alipurduar district, and opening its account in the segment for the first time. The scene was much brighter for the ruling NDA in neighbouring Bihar where it swept the bypolls to four assembly segments, retaining Imamganj and wresting from the INDIA bloc Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj, in a shot in the arm ahead of the assembly polls due next year. In Assam, the BJP and its allies retained four assembly seats and were leading in one, where the bypolls were held on November 13. The sol

UP bypoll result: BJP clinches 6 out of 9 seats, SP saves Akhilesh's Karhal

UP bye-election results 2024: The BJP has emerged victorious, securing six seats. Meanwhile, the SP secured Karhal and Sishamau seats

Karnataka Assembly bypolls win: Shivakumar gives credit to CM Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday gave credit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's leadership as well as the five guarantees for the Congress party's success in the assembly bypolls. Shivakumar said this victory was a prelude to the 2028 assembly election where the party would once again win. The Congress won the Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur Assembly segments. The by-elections were held on November 13 and the results were announced today. The ruling Congress on Saturday retained its strong hold of Sandur, with its candidate E Annapoorna, winning the seat by defeating BJP's ST Morcha president Bangaru Hanumanthu. In the Channapatna segment, Congress' C P Yogeeshwara won the "high profile" seat by defeating JD(S) candidate and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy. Similarly, Congress' Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan won the Shiggaon Assembly segment by defeating former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's son Bharath Bommai. "Our guarantees, ...

Your blessings will help us work: Mamata to people after TMC's bypoll wins

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday thanked the people of the state as her party, the Trinamool Congress, was on the course to bag all the six assembly seats that went to the by-elections. She said the results of the by-elections would help her work for the people. "I would like to thank and congratulate the 'Maa, Mati and Manush' from the bottom of my heart. Your blessings will help us work for the people in the coming days. We all are common people and that is our identity. We are not zamindars, but the custodians of the people," she posted on X. According to the Election Commission, TMC has already won the Naihati, Sitai, Haroa and Madarihat seats, and was leading by big margins in Taldangra and Medinipur.

Officials gear up for counting in Maharashtra, Jharkhand Assembly polls

Security has been tightened at counting centres in Maharashtra, including Kalina and Dharavi, as per the visuals

Uttarakhand bypoll: 57.64% turnout in Kedarnath, 8.8% drop from last poll

A voter turnout of 57.64 per cent was recorded in the Kedarnath Assembly bypoll in Uttarakhand till 6 pm on Wednesday. "The bypoll went off peacefully with no untoward incident reported from the constituency. Till the end of polling at 6 pm, 57.64 per cent of the electorate cast their votes," Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam said. After a slow start at 8 am, the number of voters at polling booths swelled as the day progressed. A total of 173 polling booths were set up in the constituency, 130 of them equipped with CCTV cameras. The booths were monitored by the offices of the district and chief election officers as well as the Election Commission through webcasting, Purushottam said. In the last Assembly polls in Uttarakhand in 2022, Kedarnath recorded 66.43 per cent polling, officials said. Earlier in the day, district electoral officer Saurabh Gaharwar visited polling booths to ensure voting was going on smoothly. He also appealed to people to come out in large numbers to

Bypolls 2024: Voting underway in 15 Seats across 4 states

Wayanad sees low turnout of 64.72% in Priyanka Gandhi's debut contest

Wayanad by-election records a voter turnout of 64.72%, the lowest since its inception in 2009, as Priyanka Gandhi faces CPI and BJP in her debut contest

Bypolls 2024: Priyanka in Wayanad; spotlight on Shivraj Chouhan's Budhni

Assembly bypolls to 31 constituencies is underway, mostly vacated following the resignations of MLAs who were elected to the Lok Sabha in the elections

Stage set for polling in Jharkhand, Wayanad & 33 bypolls across 11 states

Polling for the first phase of Jharkhand's assembly elections, the Wayanad parliamentary seat in Kerala, and bypolls in 33 assembly seats across 11 states is set to begin on Wednesday morning.

Bypolls in Wayanad Lok Sabha & 31 Assembly seats spread across 10 states

Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on ...

West Bengal: TMC, BJP set for bypolls on six seats amid RG Kar probe

The by-elections to six assembly constituencies in West Bengal on Wednesday are shaping up to be a test for the ruling TMC, amid a wave of widespread protests across the state surrounding the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The incident has sparked a months-long agitation by junior doctors demanding justice for their deceased colleague and systemic reforms, significantly impacting the political environment just days before the polls. Both the ruling TMC and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have fielded candidates for all six seats: Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, Taldangra, Sitai (SC), and Madarihat (ST). Notably, five of these constituencies are in the TMC strongholds of south Bengal, while Madarihat remains a BJP bastion in the northern part of the state. Adding another layer of competition, the CPI (M)-led Left Front and the Congress are contesting separately for the first time since 2021, following a recent change in the Ben

Rahul joins Wayanad bypoll campaign, vows to make it global tourism hub

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi joined his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the last day of the bypoll campaign for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat on Monday and promised to elevate Wayanad to the ranks of world's premier tourism destination. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the UDF candidate contesting in the bypoll. "As a challenge, I will help her (Priyanka Gandhi) to make Wayanad the best tourism destination in the world," Rahul said, while addressing a gathering followed by a roadshow along with Priyanka from the Assumption Junction to Chungam Junction in Sultan Bathery here. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said the people of Wayanad taught him that the word love has a great place in politics. "I did not use that word, but the people of Wayanad taught me that the word has a great place in politics," he added. The Congress leader also stated that love and affection are the only weapons to combat hatred and anger. A huge crowd gathered on both sides of the road

PM Modi to visit Bihar on Nov 13, 15 to attend events in Darbhanga, Jamui

The by-polls will be conducted on November 13 in Tarari, Ramgarh, Imamganj and Belaganj assembly constituencies and the results for the same will be declared on November 23

Palakkad bypoll: Trolley bag row will cause set back for LDF, says CPI(M)

The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Saturday expressed confidence that the trolley bag controversy would cause set back to the Congress-UDF in bypoll-bound Palakkad and would turn out to be votes for the party-led LDF in the constituency in the November 20 assembly by-election. The Left party said the midnight search issue and the subsequent trolley bag controversy had come up as part of the election process and there is no need to ignore it without discussing it. Police recently conducted a raid at a hotel in Palakkad on suspicion of the arrival of black money where prominent Congress leaders were staying. Addressing reporters here, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said the state should discuss the matter in connection with the flow of hawala money (during election time). "We are not a party which goes after a trolley bag. All these issues have cropped up as part of election progress and not come up as a political issue. It's an important matter which should not be ignored. A correc

Want to serve Wayanad, just like mother looks after children: Priyanka

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is making her electoral debut as the UDF candidate in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, on Thursday said her sentiments about serving the people of the hill constituency are the same as those of a mother towards her children. Priyanka, on the last day of her second leg of bypoll campaign, said that if she was given a chance, she would fight for the people of Wayanad not only in the Parliament, but on every other platform. The Congress leader also referred to the love her brother -- Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi -- has for Wayanad and urged the people of the hill constituency to vote for her so that she can help them for the affection and support they have shown to her family. Priyanka also reiterated her accusations against the BJP-led Centre, saying that their politics has harmed farmers and small business owners in the country. Addressing corner meetings at Akampadam and Pothukallu in Eranad and Nilambur assembly constituencie

Is Wayanad a cakewalk for Priyanka, or will she face stiff competition?

When devastating landslides struck Wayanad in July, Rahul Gandhi had already vacated this Lok Sabha seat - a move his opponents called a 'betrayal'. Now, with tragedy and unresolved issues as the back

38 candidates fighting on 4 seats in Bihar bypolls; 34 in fray in Assam

Altogether 38 candidates were on Wednesday left in the fray for Tarari, Ramgarh, Belaganj and Imamganj assembly seats of Bihar where by-polls are scheduled next month. According to a statement from the Election Commission, a total of 50 candidates, including nine women, had filed their nomination papers till October 25, but six of those were rejected during scrutiny and an equal number of persons withdrew from the contest. Of the four constituencies, Belaganj has the highest number of 14 candidates, including RJD's Vishwanath Kumar Singh, son of Surendra Prasad Yadav whose election to the Lok Sabha from Jehanabad has necessitated the by-election. His main rival is Manorama Devi of JD(U), a former MLC while Jan Suraaj's Mohd Amjad and AIMIM's Mohd Zamin Ali Hasan are expected to queer the pitch for the two primary contenders. The lowest number of five candidates are in the fray for Ramgarh where RJD's Ajit Kumar Singh, the son of state party chief Jagadanand Singh, hopes to retain t