This Article is From Nov 07, 2009

By-elections to 31 Assembly seats underway

It's a small election in terms of scale, but today's by-elections for one Lok Sabha and 31 Assembly seats across seven states, could have a big impact on the future of several parties like the Left, the Trinamool Congress, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.

In West Bengal, where voting is on for 10 seats, it's a big test for both the Left and the Trinamool Congress. Both sides fought bitterly in the run-up to the polls. Mamata Banerjee and Chief Minister Buddhadev and other Left leaders have been trading charges over who is hand in glove with the Maoists. And Mamata has repeatedly demanded the imposition of President's Rule saying there is a complete breakdown of law and order in the state. By 5 o'clock on Saturday evening voters would have decided whether the Left will gain the upper hand, or the Mamata juggernaut will continue its march

It's a high-stakes battle also for the 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh and the one Lok Sabha seat of Firozabad, mainly for the Congress and Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.

The outcome of today's polls will show whether the Rahul wave, which was prominent in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, will prove costly for the Samajwadi Party. Most of the seats that are up for voting today are Samajwadi Party strongholds. And Mayawati may not have campaigned at all for these elections, but she is definitely hoping to make inroads into her arch rival Mulayam's territory

The other state which is crucial for the Left is Kerala. By-elections are being held for three seats, Kannur, Ernakulam and Alappura. There is plenty of pride at stake in Kerala, where the ruling Left Democratic Front has never lost a by-election while in power. The Congress is defending its long-held seats after its legislators got elected to the Lok Sabha in the May 2009 general elections.

By-elections are also being held to two Assembly seats each in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and one in Chhattisgarh.

 
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