NEW DELHI, 3 June 2005 — The fate of several high-profile politicians was sealed yesterday as byelections were held to one Lok Sabha and 16 assembly seats in six states. At stake is the political future of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and veteran Karnataka politician S. Bangarappa.
With Goa under President’s rule and the state assembly under suspended animation, the outcome of five assembly seats could decide which party would form the next state government. At present, Congress and its allies have 17 seats and BJP 14 in the 34-member Goa Assembly.
Elections were also held in Shimoga parliamentary constituency in Karnataka, four assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, three in Haryana, two in Kerala and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
In Haryana, Hooda, a Lok Sabha member from Rohtak constituency, is pitted against Azad Singh Attri of INLD in Killoi. Following the stunning victory of Congress in Haryana assembly elections, Hooda was selected as the state chief minister. Prospects of his entering the assembly from his pocketborough Killoi are said to be strong.
Though seven candidates are trying their luck in Shimoga (Karnataka), the battle is perhaps most crucial for former Chief Minister S. Bangarappa. After resigning from BJP and giving up his Lok Sabha membership, Bangarappa is seeking re-election as a Samajwadi Party nominee. It is a question of political survival for him as both the Congress and the BJP have worked hard to keep him out of the Lok Sabha.
In Kerala, elections for two seats would be regarded as a crucial indicator of whether K. Karunakaran has managed to cut into the Congress votes or not.
Also in the fray in Haryana are Kiran Chaudhary from Tosham and Savitri Jindal from Hissar. The two women are widows of Congress leaders Surinder Singh and O.P. Jindal who were killed in a helicopter crash recently.
BSP MLA Raju Pal’s widow is contesting from the Allahabad West seat against the very man who is alleged to have killed her husband. Despite the Election Commission keeping a special watch in this constituency on account of it being the most sensitive one, there are reports that at several voting stations, voters were not allowed to cast their votes.
The EC had deputed a third central observer to oversee the poll process there. There are reports that at Tiwari-ka-Talab polling station, BSP supporters were allegedly prevented from casting their votes.
Apart from sporadic incidents of rigging and booth capturing, polling was reported to be by and large peaceful in UP. Here, voters decided the fate of 52 candidates in byelections to Hainserbazar (Reserved) in Sant Kabirnagar district, Varanasi (North), Allahabad (West) and Khairagarh (Agra) seats.
