The counting of votes for bye-elections to 58 Assembly constituencies across 11 states began at 8 am on Tuesday, PTI reported. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are among the states keenly watched.

Officials said the Election Commission of India has restricted the number of people who can be present in the counting halls and extensive measures have been taken to ensure physical distancing.

Madhya Pradesh

The results of bye-polls to 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh will decide the fate of the seven-month-old Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. The polls are also being projected as a prestige battle between former Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who resigned from the state Assembly on March 10 this year, leading to the fall of the Congress government and the BJP regaining power after a gap of 15 months.

Elections were necessitated after 22 sitting MLAs and supporters of Scindia also switched to the saffron party.

The numbers seem to be in favour of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government as it needs to win only nine seats in the 230-member Assembly to cross the halfway mark on its own, compared to 28 for the Congress. Sixteen of the 28 seats are being contested in the Gwalior and Chambal regions, believed to be a stronghold of the Scindias.

The counting will be held in 19 districts. A total of 355 candidates, including 12 ministers, are in the fray for bye-polls to 28 seats in the state.

The state’s campaign was marred by caustic remarks, with Kamal Nath being censured by the Election Commission for using a derogatory term for BJP candidate Imarti Devi. The poll panel had issued a notice to Nath on October 21 for calling Devi an “item”. The electoral body also removed Nath as a “star campaigner” for repeated poll code violations, but the Supreme Court stayed this order.

Uttar Pradesh

Bye-polls to seven Assembly seats in the state had a total of 93 contenders. The closely watched seat is Bangarmau, which former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar vacated after being convicted of rape and murder. In 2017, Sengar was accused of raping a woman who was a minor at the time. A life term was imposed on him in December.

Naugawan Sadat, Bulandshahr, Ghatampur, Tundla, Deoria, and Malhani were among the other six seats which went to polls. The BJP had won all the seats, except for Malhani in Jaunpur district, in the 2017 Assembly polls.

On Monday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had accused the BJP of rigging the elections in its favour. He, however, did not elaborate on the accusation, and said he would provide the details after the results are out on Tuesday. “The BJP has done ‘dhandhli’ [rigging], ‘dhokha’ [fraud] and whatever it could by misusing the administration,” Yadav told reporters in Lucknow. “The government had made such an arrangement that the voters could not come out to exercise their franchise.”

Naugaon Sadat seat fell vacant after the death of state Cabinet minister and former cricketer Chetan Chauhan. Ghatampur bye-polls in Kanpur Nagar district was necessitated due to the death of state minister Kamal Rani Varun. Both ministers had died of the coronavirus.

The Tundla seat fell vacant after its MLA SP Singh Baghel was elected to Lok Sabha. The elections also marked the electoral debut of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, who has fielded Mohammad Yameen in Bulandshahr to test the party’s electoral popularity.

The ruling Adityanath-led BJP government in the state faces an uphill battle with stiff competition from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party. The Congress has also attempted to regain foothold in this politically significant state.

On October 29, BSP chief Mayawati’s support to the BJP in order to defeat the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party was seen as a sign of her softening her stand on the saffron party’s popularity in the state. However, four days later, she clarified that she would rather “quit politics” than ally with the BJP.

The Congress, meanwhile, has targeted the BJP for crimes against Dalits in the state, with primary focus on the Hathras gangrape and murder. However, the party has fielded Brahmin candidates like Arti Bajpai in Bangarmau, Rakesh Mishra at Malhani, and Mukund Bhaskar Tripathi in Deoria. The BSP has stayed with its earlier formula of giving tickets to Muslim politicians in two seats of western Uttar Pradesh – Bulandshahr and Naugawan Sadat.

Gujarat

In Gujarat, eight seats are up for grabs after Congress MLAs resigned from the position. The legislators had quit days before the Rajya Sabha elections in June. Five of them joined the BJP soon after quitting, and the party has fielded them from the seats that they won in 2017.

Around 18.75 lakh voters chose from a total of 81 candidates for the eight seats of Abdasa in Kutch district, Karjan in Vadodara, Dang, Kaprada in Valsad, Morbi, Dhari in Amreli, Gadhada in Botad, and Limbdi in Surendranagar. The counting will be held at eight centres set up in these constituencies.

The five turncoat MLAs – Pradyumansinh Jadeja (Abdasa), Brijesh Merja (Mobri), JV Kakadiya (Dhari), Akshay Patel (Karjan) and Jitu Chaudhary (Kaprada) – are hoping to be re-elected from their constituencies. The bye-polls are also a chance for the BJP’s state unit chief CR Patil to realise his aim of winning all the 182 seats in the 2022 Assembly election.

Manipur

Bye-polls to four seats in Manipur’s Wangoi, Lilong, Wangjing Tentha, and Saitu were conducted on November 7, along with the third phase of the Bihar Assembly elections and the single Lok Sabha seat in Valmiki Nagar.

Around 91.54% of the total 1.35 lakh voters exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 11 candidates. The bye-polls were required after four Congress MLAs resigned to join the BJP.

The saffron party has fielded candidates in three seats and supported an Independent in Lilong. The Opposition Congress contested in all the four seats. The Wangoi seat will see a pitched battle as the National People’s Party, a coalition partner of the BJP-led government in the state, fielded its candidate against the nominees of the Congress and the saffron camp.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, Sirsa seat in Tumkur district and the Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat in Bengaluru went to polls. The two constituencies are situated in south Karnataka, where the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress have a stronger hold. Sirsa was vacated after the death of JD(S) leader B Satyanarayana in August. The Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat became empty in July 2019 after Congress leader Munirathna Naidu quit to join the BJP.

Though the results will not affect the BS Yediyurappa government, the contest is being seen by many as a reflection on its performance, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

Odisha

In Odisha, bye-polls were held for Balasore Sadar and Tirtol seats. The election to the seat of Balasore Sadore was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP leader Madan Mohan Dutta in June. The saffron party aims to regain the seat by fielding the deceased politician’s son Manas Kumar Dutta. The Tirtol seat was to be filled after the death of Biju Janata Dal MLA Bishnu Charan Das in July. Bijay Shankar Das, the party leader’s son, contested the elections from the seat.

The counting of votes for the Balasore bye-polls will be held at the campus of the district collector’s office, while in Tirtol it will be held at the SVM College premises in Jagatsinghpur, Chief Electoral Officer SK Lohani said.

State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan claimed his party will win both the seats as the voters are “fed up with the ruling BJD”.

Jharkhand

In Jharkhand, a total of 28 candidates contested for two seats – Dumka and Bermo. A bye-poll in Dumka was required after Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced he was retaining the Barhait seat instead of Dumka. The chief minister’s brother Basant Soren, and former Cabinet minister and BJP leader Lois Marandi hope to secure the seat. The seat of Bermo was vacated after Congress MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh died in May. The Congress has fielded Anup Singh against the BJP’s Yogeshwar Mahato.

Nagaland

For the two seats in Nagaland’s Southern Angami-1 and Pungro Kiphire constituencies, there were eight candidates. Three contested from Southern Angami-1 and the remaining five from the other seat. Deaths of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party politician Vikho-o Yhoshu and T Torechu of the Naga People’s Front were the reason the seats fell vacant.

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh’s Marwahi seat fell vacant after the death of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in May. The seat has been in the Jogi family since 2003. His son Amit Jogi won it in 2013. The seat is a Scheduled Tribes-reserved constituency. The seat will see a tussle between the BJP and the Congress after the nomination papers of Amit Jogi and his wife Richa Jogi were rejected as the returning officer said their caste certificates were invalid.

Haryana

Haryana’s Baroda Assembly seat, which fell vacant after Congress MLA Shri Krishan Hooda died in April, witnessed a contest between 14 candidates. Wrestler and BJP leader Yogeshwar Dutt was in the fray for the seat. The seat is a Congress bastion, and a constituency that the BJP has never been able to secure. Amid protests over the new farm bills, the ruling coalition of the BJP-Jannayak Janta Party will find it extremely tricky to realise their aspirations for this seat.

Telangana

In Telangana, 34 candidates contested for the Dubbaka Assembly seat that needed filing after the death of Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader Ramalinga Reddy in August 2019. His wife Solipeta Sujatha is the ruling party’s choice.