Voting is underway for bye-polls for one Lok Sabha seat and six Assembly constituencies across five states on Monday, reported ANI.

Polling is being held for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, the Rampur Sadar and Khatauli Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar, and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh.

The Mainpuri seat fell vacant after the death of Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav on October 10. Dimple Yadav, the daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, is contesting the seat.

Six candidates are contesting the Lok Sabha seat. The Bhartiya Janata Party has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya, who was once a close aide of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav but joined the saffron party ahead of the polls, reported PTI.

There are 14 candidates in Khatauli and 10 in Rampur Sadar. The elections were necessitated after Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified due to their conviction in separate cases.

While Khan was disqualified following his imprisonment in a 2019 hate speech case, Saini lost his membership after his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.

The BJP has fielded Akash Saxena, the son of former party MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena, in Rampur Sadar against Samajwadi Party leader Asim Raja. In Khatauli, Vikram Singh Saini’s wife Rajkumari Saini is contesting against Rashtriya Lok Dal’s candidate Madan Bhaiya.

The Sardarshahar seat in Rajasthan fell vacant after Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma died on October 9 after a prolonged illness. The Congress has fielded Sharma’s son Anil Kumar against BJP’s Ashok Kumar. Eight other candidates are contesting the seat.

The bye-poll to the Padampur seat in Odisha was necessitated by the death of Biju Janata Dal leader Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha. The ruling party in the state has nominated Bariha’s daughter Barsha. BJP has fielded former MLA Pradip Purohit and the Congress candidate is Satya Bhusan Sahu.

Kurhani in Bihar is going to bye-elections as Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Anil Kumar Sahani was disqualified after he was sentenced to jail in a fraud case.

The Janata Dal (United) has fielded Manoj Singh Kushwaha from the seat earlier held by its ally.

The bye-poll to Bhanupratappur seat in the Maoist-hit Kanker was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA and Deputy Speaker Manoj Singh Mandavi in November. The Congress has fielded the late MLA’s wife Savitri Mandavi, while the BJP nominee is Brahmanand Netam. The seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The results will be declared on December 8 along with the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.