The counting of votes for 31 Assembly seats across seven states and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, for which polling was held on November 7, is over. The results will be announced in a while. Starting from the north, votes were counted for:
- 2 Assembly seats in Himachal
- 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh
- 2 Assembly seats in Rajasthan
- 1 Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh
- 10 Assembly seats in West Bengal
- 2 Assembly seats in Assam
- 3 Assembly seats in Kerala
West Bengal
The verdict that is being most closely watched is that of the 10 Assembly seats in Bengal. The stakes are high. The outcome will show whether the Left has managed to regain the ground that it had lost to the Trinamool in the 2004 Assembly elections and the make up for the drubbing it got at the hands of the Congress and Trinamool in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The run-up to the polls saw a bitter battle between Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, with both of them trading charges over being hand-in-glove with the Maoists and Mamata repeatedly demanding imposition of President's Rule.
The two seats in Kolkata which are a prestige issue for both the CPM and Trinamool are Belgachia East and Alipore. Belgachia East went to the Left in the last elections while Alipore was won by the Trinamool.
The CPI-M has nominated Subhas Chakaraborty's widow Ramala against the late leader's one-time disciple and now Trinamool leader Sujit Bose.
Sujit Bose, the Trinamool candidate from Belgachia East, is also the Vice Chairman Dum Dum Municipality run by the Trinamool.
Uttar PradeshIt's a high stakes battle for the 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh and the one Lok Sabha seat of Firozabad, mainly for the Congress and Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.
Tuesday's verdict will show whether the Rahul wave, which was clearly visible in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, is going to prove costly for the Samajwadi Party as most of the seats that were up for voting are a Mulayam bastion.
Mayawati may not have campaigned at all for these elections, but she is definitely hoping to make inroads into her arch rival Mulayam's territory.
The outcome will clearly show which way the wind is blowing for the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party
In the Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency, Bollywood actor Raj Babbar is fighting on a Congress ticket. He had left the Samajwadi Party to join the Congress.
Pitted against Babbar is the Samajwadi Party's Dimple Yadav, who happens to be the daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
SP Singh Baghel of the BSP is the third heavyweight candidate for the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat. Baghel had left SP to join BSP during N-deal trust vote.
Fighting for the Padrauna seat is Mohini Devi of the Congress. She's the mother of Union Minister of State RPN Singh, who vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha elections.
Pitted against her is the state President of the BSP, Swami Prasad Maurya.
And the BJP has fielded a newcomer Amit Pur to retain BJP's only Assembly seat in Lucknow
Kerala
The other state which is crucial for the Left is Kerala. The ruling LDF has come under a lot of criticism over the past year over land scams. By-polls were held in Ernakulam, Kannur and Alappuzha, where the main contest is between the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF.
All the three seats were vacated Congress MLAs who won the Lok Sabha polls.
It may be a small election, but on Tuesday's verdict is being seen as referendum for the ruling Left Front in the state after its Lok Sabha debacle earlier this year and among the three seats, it's prestige battle for Kannur with the Congress fighting to retain it; while the Left is battling to win back the seat it had lost way back in 1957.
Of the three seats the one that has become a prestige battle for the Left and Congress is Kannur, where it's a straight contest between AP Abdullakutty of the Congress. Abdullakutty was expelled by the CPM. Giving him a close fight is MV Jayarajan, CPM.