New Delhi [India], May 10 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to come out and vote in large numbers on Wednesday as voting for one Lok Sabha seat in Punjab and four assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Meghalaya commenced.
"There are by-polls happening for a Parliamentary seat in Punjab and for Assembly seats in Meghalaya, Odisha and UP. Urging voters in those constituencies to exercise their franchise in large numbers," PM Modi tweeted.
Bypolls are underway in the assembly constituencies of Swar and Chhanbey in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.
Voting for the bypoll began in the assembly constituencies of the Jharsuguda in Odisha and Sohiong in Meghalaya.
While polling for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat will also take place on Wednesday.
The counting of votes for the bypolls will also take place along with Karnataka on May 13.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary.
Chaudhary died after a cardiac arrest while taking part in party leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra between Phillaur and Goraya towns in January this year.
The seat is likely to witness an intense battle between AAP, BJP, Congress, and Shirom Akali Dal
In Meghalaya, a bypoll was necessitated due to the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the assembly elections held in the rest of the state on February 27.
The contest in Swar, previously held by Abdullah Azam Khan, the son of prominent SP politician Azam Khan will be the high point. Bypolls in the Swar assembly seat were necessitated after Abdullah Azam Khan was given a two-year prison sentence by a Moradabad court in a case that dates back fifteen years
While the seat in Chhanbey in Mirzapur fell vacant following the death of Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.
In Odisha's Jharsuguda, the by-election was necessitated following the murder of sitting MLA and the then Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on January 29.
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