New Delhi: Counting of votes for by-elections to Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, along with a Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, will take place on Friday, with the results expected to provide an electoral indicator for the parties involved.
In Tamil Nadu, counting will be held for the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies, with the outcome set to provide an early electoral test for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government.
Postal ballots will be counted first when the process begins at 8 a.m., followed by votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs). Both constituencies, reserved for Scheduled Castes, went to the polls on October 6 following an intensive campaign involving prominent leaders from the ruling party and the Opposition.
The contests carry considerable political significance for TVK, which came to power after winning 108 seats in the Assembly election, short of the 118 required for a majority.
In West Bengal, counting will take place for the Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar in Murshidabad district. Voting in both constituencies was conducted under unprecedented security arrangements.
The Nandigram contest has drawn particular attention after Sanchita Pradhan Dey, the candidate of the Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), withdrew her nomination at the last moment. Her withdrawal has led political observers to anticipate a possible victory for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Hasi Rani Rath.
Dey is the mother of late Chandranath Rath, personal assistant to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was assassinated in Madhyamgram on May 6.
Earlier on Tuesday, Adhikari said that Rath’s victory margin in the Nandigram bypoll could surpass the margin he secured from the same constituency in 2016.
Meanwhile, counting will also be held for the Thattanchavady Assembly constituency in Puducherry and the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in Assam.
The results across these constituencies will determine the electoral fortunes of the candidates and parties contesting the bypolls.
–IANS–
