AGARTALA / NEW DELHI, Sep 23 (TIWN): The voting for the four constituencies-- Dantewada (Chhattisgarh), Pala (Kerala), Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Badharghat (SC) (Tripura)--started on Monday morning. In Tripura it started followed by dozens turbulences and tensions, allegations, protests of the opposition demanding a peaceful election in the Badharghat constituency. Tripura’s Badharghat constituency is also witnessing a triangular contest between the BJP, Congress and the CPI-M. Voters who were haunted throughout previous Panchayat and Lok Sabha elections, are reported provided with hefty securities and the whole Badharghat constituency has been blanketed with safety-cover. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of BJP leader Dilip Sarkar in April this year. The much awaited vote counting will take place on September 27 deciding the fates of the contesters Mimi Majumder (BJP), Bulti Biswas (CPI-M), Ratan Das Congress.

The by-election in Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh) was necessitated after sitting BJP MLA Ashok Kumar Chandel was convicted in an over two-decade old murder case. The party has fielded Yuvraj Singh, who hails from a prominent Thakur family in Hamirpur and has been part of Congress and Samajwadi Party in the past.

Pala (Kerala) holds the record for electing the same candidate for the maximum number of times – Kerala Congress leader KM Mani represented Pala without break from 1967 till his death in 2019. He won as many as 12 elections from Pala in these 52 years.

The bypoll in Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) is not just crucial from a political point of view but also a security one. On 9 April this year, BJP MLA from Dantewada Bhima Mandavi was killed along with four policemen in an IED blast caused by Naxal insurgents in Shyamgiri village.