Results Of Bypolls To 4 Lok Sabha, 13 Assembly Seats Today: 10 Points

Karnataka voted in the bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two assembly seats on April 17. Two of the seats had fallen vacant after the incumbents died of Covid. The Belagavi or Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency was held by the BJP's Suresh Angadi, who was the Minister of State for Railways at the time of his death due to the virus last year. Mr Angadi's wife Mangala Suresh is the BJP candidate in the constituency. Her main opponent is the Congress's Satish Jarkiholi - a sitting MLA from Yamkanmardi and a member of the wealthy and influential Jarkiholi family. He is the brother of Ramesh Jarkiholi, former Karnataka minister who had resigned after a controversy involving an alleged sex-for-job video clip. The Congress is leading in Belagavi currently. 

Karnataka's Maski assembly seat in Raichur district was with the Congress. Its MLA, Pratapgouda Patil, quit the party and is now the BJP candidate. His main opponent is the Congress's Basavanagoud Turihal.  The Congress is leading in Maski.

The Basavakalyan assembly seat in Karnataka's Bidar district was also held earlier by the Congress's Narayan Rao, who died of Covid. The Congress candidate is his wife, Mala. She is up against the BJP's Sharanu Salagar and the JD(S)'s Syed Yasrab Ali Qadri. The BJP has gained lead in the constituency. 

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, by-election to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after the death of the sitting YSR Congress M,  Balli Durgaprasada Rao, of Covid last September. The BJP candidate is Ratnaprabha, former chief secretary of Karnataka, and joined the party recently. Panabaka Lakshmi represented N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The YSRC is leading currently followed by the TDP. 

In Madhya Pradesh, by-election to the Damoh assembly seat was held on April 17. Out of the 22 candidates, the main contest is between Rahul Lodhi of the BJP and Ajay Tandon of the Congress. The bypoll was necessitated as Mr Lodhi, who had won from Damoh on a Congress ticket in 2018, resigned from the assembly as well as the party in October last year and joined the BJP. The Congress is leading here. 

Telangana's Nagarjuna Sagar assembly seat went into by-election after sitting  Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA Nomula Narsimhaiah died last December. It is suspected that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao contracted Covid during a public meeting held on the eve of bypoll. Besides the Chief Minister, 60 others who attended the meeting tested positive. The TRS is leading here followed by the Congress. 

Assembly bypolls were held in Rajasthan's Sahada (Bhilwara), Sujangarh (Churu) and Rajsamand. The three seats were represented by Kailash Trivedi, Bhanwarlal Meghwal (both from the Congress) and Kiran Maheshwari (BJP), respectively. Master Bhanwarlal Meghwal, who was the social justice and empowerment minister in the state government, had died due to a brain stroke. Kailash Trivedi and Kiran Maheshwari died of coronavirus last year.  Congress is learing in Sahada and Sujangarh while the BJP is leading in Rajasmand.

Assembly by-elections were also held in three seats in Rajasthan, one each in Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand.

In Maharashtra's Pandharpur assembly seat, Sharad Pawar's NCP fielded Bhagirath Bhalake, the son of the MLA who died. The BJP fielded Samadhan Mahadev Uthadev. The BJP fielded Nimishaben Manharsinh Suthar as its candidate in Gujurat's Morwa Hadaf assembly seat. The NCP has gained lead, early trends show. 

The counting exercise is being held at a time when India is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, a crisis that has crippled the country's public healthcare system. The Election Commission of India has banned all victory processions.