All set for tomorrow’s by-elections in Punjab, Bihar & Uttarakhand
In Punjab, all preparations have been made for the by-election to be held tomorrow in the Jalandhar West reserved assembly constituency. The polling will start at 7 AM and continue till 6 PM.
A total of 15 candidates are in the fray, although the main contest is between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party candidate Mohinder Bhagat, BJP’s Sheetal Angural and Congress Party’s Surinder Kaur.
Total 181 polling stations have been set up in the constituency for 1 lakh 72 thousand 20 voters. Tight security arrangements have been made in the entire constituency and additional numbers of security forces have been deployed.
In Bihar, polling will be held tomorrow for by-election in Rupauli assembly constituency in Purnea district. Around three lakh 13 thousand electorates will decide the political fortunes of 11 candidates.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made on all 321 polling stations. The main contest is expected between JD(U) candidate Kaladhar Prasad Mandal and RJD nominee Bima Bharti.
The by-election was necessitated due to resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who quit JD(U) to contest Lok Sabha from Purnea constituency on RJD ticket.
By-elections for the Badrinath seat in Chamoli and the Mangalore seat in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand will be held tomorrow. Badrinath and Mangalore districts are having 4 and 6 candidates in foray respectively.
All the polling parties appointed for the duty for the by-elections have already left and extensive security arrangements are being made at the polling stations.
For the 6 shadows areas with no mobile network in the Badrinath assembly constituency, satellite phones have been arranged by the district administration for the polling stations.
The roads blocked due to the heavy rainfall in the area in the past few days are expected to be cleared and to be made operational by tomorrow. As per the MET department the weather in the area will remain clear tomorrow.
It may be recalled that the Badrinath seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Rajendra Bhandari resigned and joined the BJP in March this year.
On the other hand, the Mangalore seat fell vacant after the death of BSP MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari in October last year.
