Voting for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar by-polls underway

In Uttar Pradesh, voting is currently going on in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats.

Voting became necessary in these two seats after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated them.

In Gorakhpur seat, the main contenders are Upendra Shukla from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Praveen Nishad from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Congress.

Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from SP and Manish Mishra from Congress are contesting from the Phulpur seat.

Tight security arrangements have been made for voting in the two seats in  politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.

In Bihar, voting for by-election in Araria Lok Sabha seat and  two assembly seats in Jehanabad and Bhabua are being held.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Taslimuddin's death left the  Araria seat vacant.

RJD’s Sarafaraz Alam, Taslimuddin’s son, and the BJP’s Pradip Singh are the main contenders for the seat.

In the Bhabua assembly, the key battle is between BJP fielded candidate Rinki Rani Pandey and Shambhu Patel from Congress.  Election became necessary for the seat after the death of BJP leader Anand Bhushan Pandey.

RJD MLA Mundrika Singh Yadav's death necessitated the by-poll in the Jehanabad seat.

Uday Yadav of the party has been fielded against JDU’s Abhiram Sharma for the by-election in the Jehanabad seat.

Results will be declared on Mar 14.

The elections are considered to be crucial before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.