Voting underway for bypoll to 4 Assembly seats in Goa, AP and Delhi

The voting for the by-polls for four Assembly seats in Bawana in Delhi, Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh, and Valpoi and Panaji in Goa has begun.

The four Assembly seats fell vacant owing to different reasons in the respective states.

Polling for the by-election in two assembly constituencies in Goa is underway after voting began at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. The polling, being held at 76 booths, including 30 in Panaji and 46 in Valpoi, will continue till 5 p.m.

Former Defence Minister and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is contesting from the Panaji assembly seat against Congress' Girish Chodankar and Anand Shirodkar of the Goa Suraksha Manch.

In the Valpoi contest, Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane is in fray against Roy Naik, the son of former state Home minister Ravi Naik, of the Congress.

The bypolls in Panaji were necessitated after sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sidharth Kuncolienkar resigned to facilitate the entry of Parrikar, who was rushed to state politics in March to head a coalition government in Goa assembly.

In Valpoi, the bypolls are being held after Rane resigned as a Congress MLA, before he was inducted in the Parrikar-led coalition government as a Health Minister.

At least 51,000 voters in both the constituencies are eligible to cast ballot, according to Chief Electoral Officer Kunal.

The Nandyal seat in Andhra Pradesh fell vacant after the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator  Bhuma Venkata Nagi Reddy passed away following a cardiac arrest.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who leads the ruling TDP, has made winning Nandyal election a prestige issue.

The TDP has fielded YSR Congress Party chief Jaganmohan Reddy’s nephew Brahmananda Reddy, while the YSRCP has put up former minister Silpa Chandra Mohan Reddy, who lost the seat as a TDP nominee in 2014.

Nandyal has been a Congress and now YSRCP bastion. Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, to be held alongside the Lok Sabha polls, are less than two years away. A victory for the YSRCP could pave the way for a better performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Voting began this morning for the Bawana Assembly constituency by-election in Delhi, in which the BJP, the AAP and the Congress are locked in a triangular contest.

Eight candidates are in the fray in the election that is being carried out through 379 polling stations.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Ved Prakash in the Bawana constituency, who won in 2015 Assembly elections as an AAP candidate. He resigned in March to join the saffron party.

The AAP has fielded Ram Chander from the constituency and this win can boost the party after successive setbacks in earlier polls.

The other major contender is of the Congress and it has fielded its former three-time MLA from Bawana, Surender Kumar.

Over 2.94 lakh electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll in which EVMs equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) are being used at all polling stations.

The by-polls results will be declared on August 28.