Counting begins at 8 am and results are usually expected by noon. (Image for representation)
New Delhi:
Election Results: The results of the seven assembly elections in six states will be announced today. Prestige battles are raging in Bihar and Telangana and a family legacy is at stake in Haryana.
Here are 10 highlights of what this election means:
-
The BJP has won Uttar Pradesh’s Gola Gokrannath, Haryana’s Adampur and Bihar’s Gopalganj and is leading in Odisha’s Dhamnagar. Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal has won in Bihar’s Mokama. K Chandrashekar’s Rao’s Telangana Rashtriya Samithi is ahead in Munugode and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction is poised for victory in Mumbai’s Andheri East seat.
-
BJP from seven seats was held three, Congress two and Shiv Sena and RJD one each before by-elections were called for. Two of the seats are in Bihar and one each in UP, Haryana, Maharashtra, Telangana and Odisha.
-
Bihar is seeing the first contest – in two seats – since Nitish Kumar quit the BJP to revive JDU’s Tejashwi Yadav’s alliance with the RJD. RJD candidate Neelam Devi, wife of Anant Singh, who was disqualified on charges of illegal possession of arms, is leading in Mokama. In Gopalganj, the RJD hopes to oust the BJP, which has held it for nearly two decades. Mohan Prasad pitted Gupta against the BJP’s Kusum Devi, whose husband Subhas Singh’s death necessitated the election.
-
In Haryana, former chief minister Bhajan Lal’s family seat Adampur will decide whether his grandson Bhavya Bishnoi can carry forward his 68-year-old legacy after he defected from the Congress to the BJP. Bhavya’s father Kuldeep Bishnoi, who took the family to the BJP, resigned as Adampur MLA for running away, leading to the election.
-
Maharashtra’s Andheri East sees the first two. This is the first poll since the Shiv Sena split as Eknath Shinde unseated Uddhav Thackeray to become the chief minister with BJP’s help. And this is the first time in decades that the Thackerays-led Sena is fighting with a new name – Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) – and a new symbol, the “mashal” or flaming torch.
-
Shiv Sena (Uddhav) candidate Rutuja Latke is the widow of a former Sena MLA from Andheri (East) who died in Dubai in May 2022 after suffering a heart attack. The BJP has withdrawn its candidate as part of a “political tradition” in polls where the death of a leader is necessary.
-
In Telangana, Munugode saw the ruling TRS and its arch-rival BJP fighting on the ground, making claims of “crores of rupees” – especially given Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s ambition to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. The Congress MLA had resigned and is now fighting on a BJP ticket.
-
In Odisha’s Dhamnagar, the ruling regional party BJD is also pitted against the BJP. BJP won last time but death of MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi led to this contest. He removed his son from the field.
-
The BJP is trying to retain the Gola Gokarannath seat in its stronghold of UP, which fell vacant after the death of MP Arvind Giri on September 6. BSP and Congress are drifting apart, hence the direct fight between Arvind Giri’s son Aman Giri. (BJP) and former Samajwadi Party MP Vinay Tiwari.
-
None of these contests can break the math for incumbent state governments. But, with regional parties looking to form a united front for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections — just a year and a half away — these could be booster shots or perception breakers, depending on the results.
