The three states are currently on the verge of a national election as the votes for the key assembly bypolls begin to be counted. The three different parliamentary seats are Bankipur in Bihar, Datia in Madhya Pradesh and Manjalpur in Gujarat. The assembly elections for all three of them were held on July 30, and the political analysts and the major national parties are paying special attention to them. Most of the national attention is on the Bankipur and Datia seats, which have been big BJP bases since the last elections.
Bankipur as the seat was previously occupied by senior leader and BJP national president Nitin Nabin. After the vacancy of this seat, a multi-cornered election erupted. BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha has a battle with Rekha Gupta of RJD and Jan Suraaj Party's Prashant Kishor. This is the first time that the former political strategist has made his official political campaign. The high-profile build-up to the counting day was further enhanced by Kishor in a press conference in which he raised questions and said that local police had detained party workers in different places during the election.
Meanwhile, the Datia assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh is quite much in demand and is one of the traditional political strongholds of the former state Home Minister Narottam Mishra. The bypoll in Datia featured a strong battle between BJP candidate Ashutosh Tiwari and Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh. The Manjalpur assembly seat was a different scenario in Gujarat with only two candidates competing. In Manjalpur, Satendrabhai Patel of BJP and Bhikhabhai Rabari of Congress are in the same race.
The administrative and security measures have been put into place at all the counting centers in the three states to ensure a smooth and transparent process. In the early stages of counting, political parties and supporters are closely following both the live trends as well as the Election Commission of India to follow the change in the political fortunes of the candidates. Coverage of these developments can be found on ANI News, The Statesman, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, India Today and NDTV.
