New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) The counting of votes is underway for the by-elections to five Assembly seats in four states — Gujarat, Punjab, Kerala and Bengal.

The bypolls were held on June 19 for two Assembly seats in Gujarat — Visavadar and Kadi; and one each in Punjab (Ludhiana West), Bengal (Kaliganj), and Kerala (Nilambur).

In Gujarat, the Visavadar seat recorded 56.89 per cent voter turnout; in Kadi, the turnout was 57.90 per cent.

Kerala’s Nilambur registered a 75.27 per cent voter turnout in the bypoll.

West Bengal recorded 69.85 per cent voting percentage in the Kaliganj seat, and in Punjab’s Ludhiana West constituency, 51.33 per cent voters turned up.

The deaths of the incumbent legislators necessitated the bypolls in one seat each in Gujarat, West Bengal and Punjab, and the resignation of two MLAs led to the polling in Kerala and another seat in Gujarat.

In Gujarat’s Kadi, the BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda, Congress has Ramesh Chavda, a former MLA from the same seat, and AAP has fielded Jagdish Chavda.

In Visavadar, the BJP nominated former Junagadh district president Kirit Patel against AAP’s Gopal Italia and Congress’ Nitin Ranpariya.

The key contenders in West Bengal’s Kaliganj are Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Sheikh, backed by the Left Front, Trinamool Congress’ Alifa Ahmed, and BJP’s Ashish Ghosh.

In Kerala, the ruling LDF nominated M. Swaraj for Nilambur bypolls, whereas Aryadan Shoukath (Congress-led UDF), Trinamool Congress’ P.V. Anvar, and Mohan George of the BJP-led NDA are the other candidates in the fray. In total, ten candidates are in the fray. The contest is seen as a litmus test for the ruling LDF government and its prospects in next year’s Assembly elections.

Ludhiana West bypoll has a four-cornered battle among Sanjeev Arora from the AAP, Bharat Bhushan Ashu from Congress, Jiwan Gupta from the BJP and Parupkar Singh Ghumman from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Arora is AAP’s Rajya Sabha candidate, and it is being speculated that Arvind Kejriwal may be nominated for the upper House in case Arora wins. Though the AAP leaders have so far denied this move. The counting of votes for the Ludhiana West Assembly is being held at Khalsa College For Women.

–IANS

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