Except for Maniktala, the BJP won all three in the 2021 elections and led the TMC in these Assembly segments in the recent Lok Sabha polls too. After the Assembly elections, the three BJP MLAs joined the TMC and contested the Lok Sabha elections this time. But all three lost. Two of them, Mukut Mani Adhikari in Ranaghat Dakshin and Krishna Kalyani in Raiganj, have been fielded again in the bypolls while in Bagdah the ruling party’s candidate is Madhuparna Thakur who belongs to the Thakur family of the Matua sect. Her mother is TMC MLA Mamatabala Thakur. They are part of the section of the Thakur family that has been at loggerheads with another branch of the family among whose members is Union Minister and Bangaon MP Shantanu Thakur of the BJP.

2. Himachal Pradesh (3 seats): Of the three constituencies in the hill state that vote on Wednesday, all eyes will be on Dehra where Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur.

Dehra fell vacant along with Hamirpur and Nalagarh days after their MLAs, all Independents, voted for BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha elections in February. The three Independent MLAs went on to resign from their seats to join the BJP and have been fielded by the party.

Meanwhile, asked about repeated bypolls in the state — six were held in June — former Himachal Pradesh CM and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal, whose son is Union Minister Anurag Thakur, told Saurabh Parashar in an interview, “This Congress government led by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu could have collapsed on its own after the Rajya Sabha elections in February. I think our party acted hastily. Repeated bypolls in a mountainous state such as Himachal Pradesh, which has its own challenges, is not good.”

3. Jalandhar West, Punjab: This bypoll presents the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with the opportunity to begin its turnaround in Punjab after the disappointing Lok Sabha elections in which it won only three of the state’s 13 parliamentary constituencies. As Anju Agnihotri Chaba reported, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his family relocated to Jalandhar last month with not just the bypoll in mind but to build a base in the state’s Doaba region. This move is part of the AAP’s long-term strategy to consolidate its position outside its stronghold of Majha.

4. Amarwara, Madhya Pradesh: This Assembly bypoll in Chhindwara is a major test for former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Kamal Nath whose son Nakul lost the family turf to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The Nath family held the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat from 1980 to 2024, except for just 1997 when the BJP won it in a bypoll and held it for a year.

This bypoll in the Scheduled Tribe-reserved constituency became necessary because Nath’s former associate and three-time Amarwara MLA Kamlesh Shah joined the BJP ahead of the parliamentary polls. The defection of Shah, who belongs to the erstwhile Harrai royal family, dealt a massive blow to Nakul’s re-election efforts. To reassert himself in the constituency, Nath has fielded young tribal leader Dheeran Shah Inavati against his former lieutenant. Invati is the son of Sukhram dada, the chief of Anchalkund Dham, a popular tribal Hindu temple in Chhindwara.

The other bypolls are being held in Badrinath and Manglaur (Uttarakhand), Vikravandi (Tamil Nadu), and Rupauli (Bihar).

Also happening today:

1. Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Diya Kumari will present the state Budget in the Assembly. Kumari had presented a vote-on-account in February in which she announced a slew of populist measures.

2. An apex group of Kuki tribes in Manipur has called a shutdown from 6 am to 6 pm in areas inhabited by the Kuki-Zo areas to protest against the arrest of three members of their community. A combined team of the CRPF and Assam Rifles arrested the three on Tuesday as they were allegedly found carrying weapons.

3. Congress general secretary and Gujarat in-charge Mukul Wasnik will camp in the state for three days starting Wednesday as the party begins its preparations for various local body elections — municipal corporations, municipalities, and district and taluka panchayat bodies — that are likely to be held later this year or in early 2025.

— With PTI inputs