CAPF jawans keeping vigil in the polling stations of 80 -Kaliganj AC under Nadia district, West Bengal.(image:x.com/CEOWestBengal)

The voting for the by-polls to five Assembly constituencies across Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Punjab began at 7 am on Thursday, June 19. These constituencies are Nilambur in Kerala, the Ludhiana West in Punjab, the Kaliganj in West Bengal, and the Visavadar and Kadi seats in Gujarat.

The counting of votes will take place on June 23.

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Nilambur, Malappuram

A total of 263 polling stations have been set for a total voter population of 2.32 lakh. The polling started in the morning amidst tight security arrangements.

The major candidates in the fray are UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath, LDF’s M Swaraj, PV Anvar contesting as an Independent and BJP’s Mohan George. Ten candidates are in the fray and other candidates are, SDPI’s Sadik Naduthodi, and independents like P Radhakrishnan Namboothiripad, N Jayarajan, Harinarayanan, Vijayan, and Satheesh Kumar G.

Kaliganj, West Bengal

The voting began amid stringent security arrangements, where fourteen companies of central forces had been deployed, as per the reports. Considered to be a triangular contest, TMC had fielded Alifa Ahmed, BJP had picked Ashish Ghosh, and Congress had nominated Kabil Uddin Sheikh, backed by the Left Front in the poll fray.

Ludhiana West, Punjab

The Assembly constituency fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. A multi-cornered contest is expected since candidates of all major parties are in the fray. The candidates vying for the seat are Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a former minister and two-term MLA, and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Sanjeev Arora, an industrialist and member of the Rajya Sabha and BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta.

Visavadar, Gujarat

The Visavadar assembly seat had been lying vacant since December 2023, after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned from the post and joined BJP. The candidates in fray are BJP’s Kirit Patel, Nitin Ranpariya of the Congress and AAP’s former Gujarat president Gopal Italia.

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Kadi, Gujarat

The Kadi seat is Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved constituency. A three-way fight is expected with BJP’s Rajendra Chavda, Congress candidate Ramesh Chavda and Jagdish Chavda of the AAP in the fray.