Vote counting for bypolls today, Priyanka fate to be decided

The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 Assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.

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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her poll debut from Wayanad, a seat that was earlier represented in the Lok Sabha by her brother, Rahul Gandhi.

Elaborate arrangements have been made for the counting of the votes polled in the three bypolls in Kerala -- Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Palakkad and Chelakkara Assembly seats. In Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi was pitted against Communist Party of India (CPI) veteran Sathyan Mokeri and BJP's Navya Haridas.

The Assembly bypolls were held in nine seats in Uttar Pradesh, seven seats in Rajasthan, six seats in West Bengal, five seats in Assam, four seats each in Punjab and Bihar, three seats in Karnataka, two seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Kerala and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya.

The Meerapur, Kundarki, Sisamau, Katehari, Phulpur, Majhawan, Ghaziabad, Karhal and Khair seats went to bypolls in the crucial political battleground of Uttar Pradesh on November 20.