Uttarakhand: Counting underway for bypoll in Bageshwar assembly seat

The counting of votes for the Bageshwar assembly by-election started at 8 am on Friday amid tight security. The counting process is being conducted in the presence of Election Observer Rajesh Kumar at Degree College Bageshwar.
According to the District Election Office, the counting of votes from the EVM will be done in 13 rounds and 14 tables. Apart from that, the electronic postal ballot system (ETPBS) votes will be counted in nine tables.
There are a total of five candidates in the fray, but the main contest is between the Bhartiya Janata Party’s Parvati Das and the Congress’ Basant Kumar.
The death of Parvati’s husband, Chandan Ram Das, from the Bageshwar constituency necessitated a bye-election in the Bagehwar Assembly. Kumar was previously the vice president of the Aam Adami Party’s (AAP) state unit. He resigned from the AAP to join the Congress Party.
Notably, Parvati’s husband was an influential leader from the Bageshwar seat, as he had been winning the elections from the same seat for four consecutive polls since 2007. Besides the BJP and Congress, the Samajwadi Party has filed Bhagvati Prasad, Arjun Kumar Dev is fighting for Uttarakhand Kranti Dal and Bhawant Kholi is contesting on a ticket from the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has a total of 46 MLAs in the 70-member Uttarakhand assembly, while the Congress has 19 seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party has two MLAs. Two seats belong to independent MLAs, and one seat is vacant for which the by-election was held.
Apart from Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar, the counting process for bye-elections is underway in five other states for five assembly seats, including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand. This is the first election between the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition bloc’s newly formed Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.