Voting for the by-elections to Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats commenced on Sunday amid tight security. On the same day, the by-election for Bihar's Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats -Jehanabad and Bhabua also began.

Latest Updates:

Bihar: 31.25% voter turnout recorded in #Araria Lok Sabha by-poll & 24.5% in #Bhabua & 28.6% in #Jehanabad assembly by-polls till 12 noon.

Uttar Pradesh : 16.80% voter turnout recorded in Gorakhpur & 12.20% in Phulpur, till 11 am.

The by-polls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats respectively, following their election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Termed by Adityanath a rehearsal for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the by-elections are witnessing a triangular contest involving the ruling BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress.

The saffron party has fielded Kaushalendra Singh Patel from Phulpur and Upendra Dutt Shukla from Gorakhpur against the SP's Pravin Nishad and Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel respectively. The Congress has nominated Sureetha Kareem for Gorakhpur and Manish Mishra for Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.

Ten candidates are in the fray from Gorakhpur, while 22 candidates are contesting from Phulpur.

Apart from the Provincial Armed Constabulary and homeguards, 65 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure peaceful bypolls.

In Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency, there are 970 polling centres and 2141 polling booths, while in Phulpur, there are 793 polling centres and 2059 polling booths.

According to the Election Commission, there 19.61 lakh voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, while there are 19.49 lakh electorate for Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat.

As many as 4,728 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines are being used in the bypoll and provisions for webcasting from 95 critical booths have been made.

Gorakhpur is significant for the BJP as it is the bastion of the chief minister, who represented the seat in the Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Yogi Adityanath, the seat was represented in Parliament by his mentor Yogi Avaidyanath thrice.

Phulpur, once represented by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, witnessed a saffron surge in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Maurya won there.

Similarly, the bypollsin Bihar are seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he pulled out of the state's Grand Alliance and joined the BJP.

The Araria seat fell vacant after the death of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The key contenders for the seat are RJD's Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin's son, and the BJP's Pradip Singh.

The Bhabua assembly seat got vacant after the death of BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey, and the party has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey. Another key candidate for the seat is Shambhu Patel from Congress.

The death of RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav necessitated the bypoll for Jehanabad seat, and his son Uday Yadav is contesting for the seat. Another key candidate in the fray is JDU's Abhiram Sharma.

The results for both states will be declared on March 14. 

(With PTI and ANI inputs)