The counting of votes for the Maharashtra bye-elections in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad Assembly segments began at 8 am with the early trends putting Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate in the lead in the Kasba Peth, the Election Commission informed on Thursday.
The counting of votes for bye-elections to one assembly constituency each in Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and two assembly constituencies in Maharashtra began on Thursday.
Meghalaya and Nagaland went for assembly polls on February 27 and voting was held in Tripura on February 16. The three states witnessed high voter turnout. The BJP, which has replaced Congress as the dominant party in the northeast, is optimistic of its prospects in the three states.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) won 12 seats, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 2 seats and independent candidates won 4 seats in the bypolls held on Tuesday.
"The poll is going smoothly, we are monitoring the process. There are 238 polling booths with micro-service in place and in vulnerable polling stations there is Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) for security," the District Collector added.
A voter turnout of 31.92 per cent was recorded in West Bengal's Sagardighi till 11 am as the polling began amid tight security today, informed Election Commission of India.
The DMK-backed Congress candidate from Erode-East, EVKS Elangovan, on Monday said the result of the high-stakes bypoll will have a bearing on the outcome of next year's general elections.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate KS Thennarasu on Monday claimed that he would win the Erode bypolls by a margin of 25,000 votes.