Election Commission personnel at a counting centre in Kolkata on Saturday. (Photo: ANI)Bye-election results 2022 Live Updates: The Trinamool Congress is currently leading both the Ballygunge and Asansol seats in West Bengal, while the RJD is ahead in Bihar’s Bochaha Assembly seat. The Congress, meanwhile, is leading the Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh bypolls.
The counting of votes started had started at 8 am. Bengal’s Ballygunge, Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh, Bihar’s Bochahan, and Maharashtra’s Kolhapur North are the four assembly constituencies that went to polls. Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha seat where polling took place was West Bengal’s Asansol. The TMC has fielded actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha to represent Asansol in the Lok Sabha seat, against BJP’s Agnimitra Paul. Meanwhile, the TMC has fielded Babul Supriyo — who had quit the BJP and joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party recently — from the Ballygunge Assembly seat.
Amid sporadic incidents of violence, about 52.7 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in bypolls to Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge Assembly constituencies on Tuesday. According to an official of the Election Commission, the voting was “peaceful”. While 64.3 per cent polling was recorded in Asansol, about 41.1 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Ballygunge Assembly constituency in Kolkata.
After 10 rounds of counting, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Amar Paswan, son of former MLA of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) Musafir Paswan, is currently leading with 36,640 votes against BJP candidate Baby Kumari, who has till now bagged 20,420 votes, in the Bochaha bypoll in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. The votes will be counted in a total of 25 rounds. VIP candidate Geeta Kumari is in the third place with 14,616.
The Bochaha bypoll, necessitated after the death of Musafir Paswan, is being touted as a prestige battle for the BJP after the exit of VIP from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which seems to have split the NDA votes to RJD’s advantage. (ENS)
After tenth round, Babul Supriyo is leading by a margin of 7,872 votes from Ballygunge. Supriyo bagged 28,635 votes. CPM candidate Saira Shah has Halim is at second position after getting 20,763 votes. BJP candidate Keya Ghosh is at fourth position after getting 4092 votes.
As per official early trends by the Election Commission, Congress leads on Khairagarh Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh as counting for the by-election gets underway.
The Trinamool Congress is leading in both seats in Bengal. Shatrughan Sinha is leading by more than 6,500 votes in Asansol. Babul Supriyo is leading by more than 4,600 votes in Ballygunge.
Fifteen candidates are in the fray for the Kolhapur North constituency assembly seat in Maharashtra. The seat fell vacant after the death of Congress’s Chandrakant Kadam in December 2021. Congress has fielded Kadam’s wife Jayashree and BJP has Satyajit Shivaji Kadam — nephew of party spokesperson Dhananjay Mahadik as its candidate.
Good Morning and welcome to our Live Blog. We'll be covering the bypolls results today, bringing you all the action from the three states, including the star-studded contest in West Bengal. Follow this space for all latest news and updates