Assembly by-polls begin on 13 Assembly seats across seven states

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Voting in the assembly by-polls has started for 13 Assembly constituencies across seven states: Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.

New Delhi [India], July 10 (HBTV): Voting in the assembly by-polls has started for 13 Assembly constituencies across seven states: Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday. 

The polling process that started at 7 am will conclude at 6 pm. 

Assembly by-polls are being held in West Bengal's Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala; Badrinath and Manglaur in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu; and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.

Himachal Pradesh.

In the Dehra segment of Kangra district, Kamlesh (53) of the Indian National Congress (INC); Hoshyar Singh (57) of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); and independent candidates Sulekha Devi (59), Arun Ankesh Syal (34), and Advocate Sanjay Sharma (56) are in the fray. 

According to officials, Ashish Sharma (37) of the BJP, Dr Pushpinder Verma (48) of the INC, and independent candidates Pradeep Kumar (58) and Nand Lal Sharma (64) are in the fray from Hamirpur Assembly Constituency. 

For the Nalagarh segment, Hardeep Singh Bawa (44) of INC; KL Thakur (64) of the BJP; Kishori Lal Sharma (46) of the Swabhiman Party; and independent candidates Gurnam Singh (48), Harpreet Singh (36) and Vijay Singh (36) are in the fray.  

The Hamirpur, Nalagarh, and Dehra assembly segments fell vacant after the speaker accepted the resignation of three independent MLAs who resigned and joined the BJP. 

West Bengal 

In Maniktala, the BJP has fielded Kalyan Chaubey, who will be contesting against Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Supti Pande. In Ranaghat Dakshin, the TMC has fielded Mukut Mani Adhikari against the BJP candidate. In Bagdah, the TMC has pitted Madhuparna Thakur against the BJP's candidate. In Raiganj, the BJP has fielded Krishna Kalyani as its candidate against the TMC candidate. 

Punjab 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced Mohinder Bhagat as the party's candidate for the by-polls on the Jalandhar West assembly seat while the Congress has announced Surinder Kaur as their party's candidate from the constituency.       

The seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sheetal Angural's resignation. Angural resigned on March 28. He has been announced as the BJP's candidate from the same seat. Angural had stepped down as AAP MLA after joining the BJP along with former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku in March.

(ANI) This is a syndicated news feed. HBTV has edited it for clarity.