Voting underway for high-stakes Kairana constituency, 11 assembly, 3 other LS seats

TIL Desk/National/Kairana(UP)/ Voting is underway at four Lok Sabha seats, including the politically-crucial Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, and 11 assembly constituencies spread across 11 states today. Besides Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh, by-election will be held in Bhandara-Gondiya and Palghar parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra, and Nagaland Lok Sabha seat.

The Kairana bypoll will see a joint opposition taking on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The constituency fell vacant after the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka Singh is now the party’s candidate for the bypoll. She is fighting Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Tabassum Hasan, who is supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The opposition hopes that by consolidating anti-BJP votes, they will repeat the success of the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha by-elections, where the ruling party suffered an unexpected defeat. The Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal have raised allegations of rigging in the Kairana Lok Sabha and the Noorpur assembly bye-elections after EVM malfunction was reported in several booths. The RLD’s candidate in Kairana Tabassum Hasan has written to the Chief Election Commissioner complaining about malfunctioning EVM and VVPATs in the constituency.