Shorapur (Scheduled Tribes) Assembly constituency in Yadgir district is going to face byelections on May 7, along with polling in the Lok Sabha elections.
The byelections have been necessitated within a year of the Assembly elections due to the demise of Congress MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik.
And, both the Congress and the BJP are involved in a straight fight to win the constituency. The Janata Dal(S) has no such strength in the constituency.
It is expected that the BJP will again field the former Minister Narasimha Nayak who accepted defeat against late Raja Venkatappa Naik in the 2023 elections.
It is said that Raja Venugopal Naik, son of late Raja Venkatappa Naik, will be the propable candidate from the Congress. If it happens, there is going to be a fierce political fight between Mr. Narasimha Nayak and Raja Venugopal Naik.
Since, the byelections are going to be held on the same day as the elections for Parliament are, the BJP is anticipating that the prevailing Modi wave will help the party win the constituency.
“The saffron party will surely gain votes due to the prevailing mood in the parliamentary elections and voters will certainly choose the party candidate [for the Assembly constituency] also,” a BJP worker said.
But, at the same time, the Congress is expecting to gain from voter sympathy due to the death of Raja Venkatappa Naik to register a victory. However, the voters will finally decide who is to be elected.
“Not only due to the sympathy factor, people will elect the Congress candidate also for the overall development being carried out with the Congress being ruling party in the State. And, this will help the constituency,” a Congress supporter said.
Electorate
A total of 2,81,375 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the constituency. Of these, 1,41,618 are male, 1,39,729 are female and 28 are others.
The constituency has a total of 317 polling stations, of which, 80 are in urban centres and 237 in rural areas.
Calendar of events
The date of notification for the byelections is April 12. The last date for filing nomination papers is April 19. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be taken up on April 20 and the last date for withdrawing nomination papers is April 22. Polling will be held on May 7 and counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.
