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Bishnoi, who contested on a BJP ticket, and RJD’s Neelam Devi, whose husband Anant Singh’s disqualification necessitated the by-election in Bihar’s Mokama, are among the prominent candidates in the fray.
The other constituencies which went to bypolls were Gopalganj in Bihar, Andheri (East) in Maharashtra, Munugode in Telangana, Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, and Dhamnagar in Odisha.
Among the seven seats which witnessed a stiff contest between the BJP and the regional parties, the saffron party held three and the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
For the bypolls in Bihar, the main contest was between the BJP and the RJD, and the saffron party’s main contenders in Haryana are the Congress, INLD and the AAP.
The Gola Gokarannath seat fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri on September 6. With the BSP and the Congress keeping away from the bypolls, there was a direct fight between the BJP’s Aman Giri and the SP candidate – former Gola MLA Vinay Tiwari.
The BJD has fielded Abanti Das, the lone woman among the total five candidates in Dhamnagar. BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi’s death necessitated the by-election. The saffron party has fielded Sethi’s son Suryabanshi Suraj.
The BJP and the ruling TRS had been campaigning aggressively in Munugode in Telangana, where the Congress MLA had resigned and is fighting on the saffron party’s ticket.
Bihar saw the first electoral test for the Nitish Kumar-led ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government, formed less than three months ago after the JD(U) parted ways with the BJP.
The Mokama and Gopalganj seats in Bihar were earlier held by the RJD and the BJP respectively.
The BJP contested from the Mokama constituency for the first time as the saffron party had, on previous occasions, left the seat to its allies. Both the BJP and the RJD have fielded the wives of local musclemen in the bypolls.
Mokama is the stronghold of Anant Singh since 2005. He won the seat twice on JD(U) tickets and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has appealed to voters to support him.
In Gopalganj, BJP fielded Kusum Devi, the wife of deceased party MLA Subhash Singh. The RJD fielded Mohan Gupta, while Indira Yadav, wife of Lalu Yadav’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, is contesting as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.
Shiv Sena’s Rutuja Latke won comfortably Andheri East Assembly constituency in Mumbai after the BJP withdrew from the contest which is the first after the recent split in the Shiv Sena following a rebellion by Eknath Shinde, who replaced Thackeray as the Maharashtra chief minister. The NCP and Congress have supported her candidature.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of Latke’s husband and Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May.
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