It's Family Time For Assembly Bypolls

Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.

Friday, October 25, 2024 was the last day for filing of nominations for 47 of the 48 assembly bypolls, slated for polling on November 13.

The bypoll in Uttarakhand's Kedarnath is scheduled for November 20.

A major highlight of the bypolls is political parties fielding relatives, including sons, wives and daughters-in-law, of the legislators who have quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.

Of the 48 seats, bypolls on 44 are being held as the sitting legislators were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Of the 48 seats, the National Democratic Alliance constituents held 20, including 12 of the BJP's and two of the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha.

The INDIA bloc parties are contesting against each other on several of these seats, especially in Kerala and West Bengal.

However, they together held 26 of these seats, including 11 of the Congress, five of the Trinamool Congress, four of the Samajwadi Party and two each of the Aam Aadmi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

A seat each was also held by the Bharat Adivasi Party and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party in Rajasthan.

In Karnataka, for example, the BJP has fielded Bharat Bommai, son of former Karnataka CM Basavaraj S Bommai, from the Shiggaon seat, which his father vacated.

Ally Janata Dal-Secular has fielded Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Channapatna, which his father Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy vacated.

In Punjab, the Congress has fielded Amrita Warring from Gidderbaha, a seat her husband Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

The party has fielded Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak, a seat which her husband Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa quit.

Some key battles

Assam
(Bypolls on five seats)
The NDA held four of these. The Congress has fielded Tanzil Hussain on the Samaguri seat.

Bihar
(Bypolls on four seats)
Two of these were held by the RJD, one by ally CPI-ML. Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha resigned from his Imamganj seat. He has fielded daughter-in-law Deepa from the seat.

Gujarat
(Bypoll on the Vav seat)
The Congress' Geniben Thakor won the seat in 2017 and 2022, and vacated after she won the Lok Sabha polls from Banaskantha.

Karnataka
(Bypolls on three seats)
BJP, JD-S and Congress held one seat each.

Madhya Pradesh
(Bypolls on two seats)
One of them is Budhni, vacated by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Uttar Pradesh
(Bypolls on nine seats)
Of the nine, four were held by the Samajwadi Party, including Akhilesh Yadav's Karhal, three by BJP and one each by its allies.

Punjab
(Bypolls on four seats)
On two seats, the Congress has fielded spouses of its Lok Sabha MPs.

Rajasthan
(Bypolls on seven seats)
Four of these were held by the Congress, and one each by the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party's Hanuman Beniwal and the Bharat Adivasi Party's Rajkumar Roat, both of whom are Lok Sabha MPs.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com