Voting is underway in three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly seats across 10 states where by-elections are being held on Saturday.
Gujarat's Vadodara constituency vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mainpuri in Uttar Pradeh vacated by Samjwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Medak seat vacated by K Chandrashekhararao after he became the Telangana chief minister are the three high profile constituencies going to polls.
Besides, by-elections are being held in 33 assembly seats across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Gujarat, Tripura, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Sikkim.
As polling began, the PM, in a tweet, urged voters "across the country today to vote in large numbers".
In Modi's Gujarat nine assembly seats are going to by-polls along with Vadodara Lok Sabha seat. Ranjan Ben Bhatta is the BJP candidate in Vadodara against Narendra Rawat of the Congress.
With the Bahujan Samaj Party keeping out and the Congress being in the fray only for namesake in Uttar Pradesh, the by-election for 11 state assembly constituencies and for one Lok Sabha seat will determine the supremacy between Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, reports Rediff.com’s Sharat Pradhan.
From the Mainpuri, which Mulayam vacated to retain Azamgarh, his grand-nephew Tej Pratap Yadav is making a debut as the SP candidate.
Amid tight security arrangements, polling began on Saturday for the by-polls to the four assembly constituencies in Rajasthan. Twenty-three candidates including four each from the ruling BJP and opposition Congress are in the fray in Nasirabad (Ajmer), Weir (Bharatpur), Surajgarh (Jhunjhunu) and Kota South constituencies where 950 polling stations have been set up.
In Assam, three seats are going to by-polls and in West Bengal two. In Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tripura and Sikkim, one seat is each is going to by-polls.
The votes will be counted on Tuesday.
Image: Polling is underway in 10 states for the by-elections
