NDA vs INDIA contest on cards as bypolls in Wayanad, 31 assembly seats tomorrow

All eyes are on the crucial bypolls in Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and 31 assembly constituencies across 10 states scheduled to take place on Wednesday. The bypolls will be held alongside voting in the first phase of Jharkhand assembly elections.The bypolls are seen as a litmus test for both the BJP-led NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc amid the assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Most of the bypolls are being held because the seats were vacated by members after their victory in the Lok Sabha seats. While some constituencies are witnessing bypolls due to deaths of the respective members.Polling 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.Nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, four in Punjab and one more seat in Kerala were also scheduled to go to polls, but the Election Commission rescheduled voting in these constituencies to November 20.In Sikkim’s Soreng-Chakung and Namchi-Singhithang seats, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) nominees Aditya Golay and Satish Chandra Rai have already been declared unopposed after their rivals withdrew from the race.
Wayanad in Kerala is the most high-profile Lok Sabha seat going to bypolls. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be making her electoral debut in this constituency. The by-election was necessitated after her brother Rahul Gandhi vacated the seat and chose to represent Raebareli in the Lok Sabha. Vadra is pitted against LDF’s Sathyan Mokeri, NDA’s Navya Haridas and 13 others. This year, Rahul’s victory margin was over 3.5 lakh votes while in 2019, it was over 4.3 lakh votes.ALSO READ: ‘Make Wayanad best tourist destination’: Rahul Gandhi’s challenge to ‘little sister’ Priyanka Vadra
Bypolls will be held in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar and Ramgarh seats.  
Six seats namely Taldangra, Sitai-SC, Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, and Madarihat will be up for grabs in West Bengal. Out of these, the ruling Trinamool Congress had won five in the 2021 assembly polls. The Madarihat seat was held by the BJP.
In Assam’s five seats- Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon and Sidli, there are a total of 34 candidates in fray. The INDIA bloc could not build on a consensus in deciding the candidate for Behali with the Congress deciding to field its candidate at the last moment, disagreeing with the alliance’s resolution to give the seat to CPI(ML) Liberation.
In Bihar, Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj and Belaganj will witness bypolls. The elections are being seen as a litmus test for both the NDA and INDIA bloc ahead of the assembly polls scheduled next year.
In Karnataka, Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur will witness bypolls. JD(S) leader Nikhil Kumaraswamy is contesting from Channapatna, a seat vacated by his father and Union minister H D Kumaraswamy after being elected to Lok Sabha.
In Madhya Pradesh, Budhni and Vijaypur seats will go to bypolls. Voting will also be held in Budhni and Vijaypur assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh. The bypoll to Vijaypur seat in Sheopur district was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was made minister in the Mohan Yadav cabinet.
The bypoll to Budhni seat is being held since MLA and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha and is now Union agriculture minister.
The other seats going to bypolls are Chelakkara in Kerala, Vav in Gujarat, Raipur City South in Chhattisgarh and Gambegre (ST) in Meghalaya.
Counting of votes in the byolls will be held on November 23.