14 bypolls today: What is at stake for BJP, Opposition, in these contests

NEW DELHI: Bypolls are being held today in four Lok Sabha and 10 assembly seats across the country, days after a buoyant victory for a joint opposition alliance in Karnataka. Here's a comprehensive guide to bring you up to speed on the contests, their contexts and their relative importance ahead of the Lok Sabha (LS) elections next year:

* The four LS seats where bypolls are being held today are Kairana in Uttar Pradesh + , Bhandara-Gondiya and Palghar in Maharashtra and the lone seat for the lower house of Parliament in Nagaland. All four were held by the BJP, which is desperate to win as the party's strength in the LS has already slipped to 272 from 282, since it has been losing most of the byelections in the last four years. In the last bypoll held in UP for two seats, the BJP lost both.

* The Kairana LS seat is the next big test for the BJP versus a unified opposition. A bypoll is being held here because of the death of sitting BJP MP Hukum Singh. The saffron party has fielded Singh's daughter Mriganka Singh. She faces the Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Tabassum Hasan, who is supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

* The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, singed from the party loss in his erstwhile Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituency some months ago, will be looking to avenge defeat. On the other hand, the joint opposition - which won not just the Gorakhpur LS seat, but also the Phulpur one in bypolls some months ago - will be tested for its viability among voters, ahead of the LS elections next year.

* In Maharashtra, the bypolls to the Bhandara-Gondia and Palghar LS seats will see a fight mainly between alliance partners, the BJP and the Shiv Sena. Still, all four major parties in Maharashtra - the Congress, BJP , Shiv Sena and the NCP - have pulled out all stops for the bypolls as the outcome is likely to have a bearing on their future course.

* The Palghar LS bypoll is being held because of the death of sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanaga. Much to the BJP's chagrin, the Shiv Sena has fielded the late parliamentarian's son, Shriniwas Wanaga, for the bypoll, to cash in on the sympathy vote. The BJP, in turn, has nominated Congress deserter Rajendra Gavit. And the Congress has fielded former MP Damu Shingda.

* In Bhandara-Gondia, the LS bypoll is being held because Nana Patole quit as the BJP MP and resigned from the party to return to the Congress earlier this year. This time around, Patole is not contesting the election, but he is campaigning actively for the NCP-Congress opposition combine candidate Madhukar Kukde, who will face off with the BJP's Hemant Patle.

* In Nagaland, a LS bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Neiphiu Rio from the LS to contest the Nagaland Assembly election in February. Rio is presently the chief minister of the state. The ruling People's Democratic Alliance in Nagaland has decided to field former minister Tokheho Yepthomi as its candidate. Yepthomi will go head-to-head with the opposition Naga People's Front nominee C Apok Jamir.

* Assembly bypolls - including one Assembly seat election - are being held in Chenganur in Kerala, Noorpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, or RR Nagar in Karnataka, Ampati in Meghalaya, Sillia and Gomia in Jharkhand, Jokihat in Bihar, Maheshtala in West Bengal, Sahkot in Punjab and Tharali in Uttarakhand.

* One of the Assembly bypoll contests to watch out for is the RK Nagar one in Karnataka. It's the one that's an election and not a bypoll. This constituency didn't see Assembly polls on May 12 along with the rest of Karnataka. Voting here was rescheduled for today, after 9,567 electoral photo identity cards were found in a flat in Jalahalli on May 9, three days before the state went to polls. Here, the contest is among the BJP, the Congress and the JD(S). The latter two are fielding separate candidates, despite coming together to form the government in the state after no single party got a majority in results declared on May 15. The result today will give an indication of how the JD(S)-Congress coalition government will function in the months to come.

* The Noorpur bypoll in Uttar Pradesh + is being held because sitting BJP MLA Lokendra Singh died in a road accident in February. The BJP is fielding his daughter Avani Singh from here. She will take on SP candidate Naimul-Hasan, as per an agreement between the SP and the RLD. There's no BSP candidate in the fray. As of two days ago, BSP chief Mayawati had not announced her support for the SP-RLD combine in Kairana or Noorpur . Mayawati's stance, political experts say, is in sharp contrast to the one during Gorakhpur and Phulpur byelections when she asked her supporters, essentially Dalits, to vote for the party which could defeat BJP.

* In Bihar, the Jokihat Assembly seat will see an all-out contest between the JD(U) (part of the ruling coalition) and the RJD. In two Assembly bypolls held in March, both the BJP and RJD won a seat each. In an LS bypoll at the same time, in Araria, the RJD won what was a BJP seat. Those March contests were the first ones in the state since the break-up of the 'mahagathbandhan', following which the JD(U) went back into the BJP-led NDA fold. If the RJD wins today's bypoll as well, it will give the RJD a huge boost and will buoy opposition prospects in general, ahead of the LS polls next year.

* For the Maheshtala Assembly bypoll in Bengal + , the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the BJP and the CPI(M) are in the fray. The Congress is sitting this one out. The TMC has fielded Dulal Das, the husband of late party MLA Kasturi Das whose death necessitated the by-poll. The BJP, which is trying to emerge as the main challenger to the TMC - especially after it's good performance in rural polls - has nominated Sujit Ghosh, a former joint director of the CBI. The TMC swept the Bengal rural polls earli.er this month, but the BJP emerged as a surprise number 2. A win for the BJP today will see it cementing its position as main opposition party in the state.

* The bypoll in Chengannur constituency of central Kerala + was necessitated following the death in January of sitting MLA K K Ramachandran Nair of the CPM. among partymen who are gearing up for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The seat will witness a tough triangular fight among the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the NDA in Kerala. It's a rare contest in a state known for its decades-long bipolar politics. The result of the by election is widely being seen as a referendum on the performance of both the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in the state and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, which has completed four years in office. Winning the seat is significant for the Congress also as it is an opportunity for them to wrest its traditional constituency back from arch rival CPI(M) and to boost the confidence.

* The bypoll in Shahkot in Punjab was necessitated following the demise of Akali MLA Ajit Singh Kohar in February this year. The seat will witness a high-octane contest between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The ruling Congress has fielded Hardev Singh Laddi while the SAD has fielded Kohar's son Naib Singh Kohar. AAP, meanwhile, has nominated Rattan Singh Kakkar Kalan for the bypoll. Here, the ruling Congress is hoping to maintain winning momentum - the Congress won the State elections in February 2017 -on the development agenda. The opposition SAD wants to retain its pocket borough from where Ajit Singh Kohar was a five-time lawmaker.

* In Jharkhand, Sudesh Mahto, the chief of AJSU-party, and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Seema Mahto are the front-runners for the Silli assembly seat in Ranchi district. The Gomia seat in Bokaro, which is going to polls following the disqualification of its sitting MLA Yogendra Mahto in February this year, will witness a three-pronged contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, its NDA ally AJSU party and JMM.

* In the bypoll to Meghalaya's Ampati seat in South Garo Hills, it's a face-off between the ruling NPP and the opposition Congress. The Tharali Assembly bypoll in Uttarakhand is a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.

(With inputs from Agencies)