New Delhi, January 29: Amid tight security, voting for bye-elections to three parliamentary and two assembly constituencies in Rajasthan and West Bengal began on Monday. In December 2017, the Election Commission of India had announced that bypolls to for seats which fell vacant following the demise of sitting members will be held on January 29, 2018. The Commission announced that the counting for all the three Parliamentary and two Assembly constituencies will be done on February 1, 2018.

In Rajasthan, polling will be held in Lok Sabha constituencies of Alwar and Ajmer parliamentary constituencies and Mandalgarh assembly constituency. Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Ramswarup Lamba is contesting from Ajmer and is up against Congress' Raghu Sharma. Lamba is the son of deceased MP Sanwar Lal Jat, and it was upon his death, the Ajmer seat fell vacant in August last year.

11 candidates are in the fray in Alwar, 23 in Ajmer and eight in Mandalgarh. A total of 1,987 polling booths have been set up in the Rajasthan's Alwar Lok Sabha constituency, while in Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency, 1,925 booths have been set up for voters to cast their votes. Meanwhile, in Mandalgarh assembly constituency, about 282 booths have been set up. Talking about the number of voters,, Alwar has 18.27 lakh registered voters, there are 18.42 lakh voters in Ajmer and 2.31 lakh voters in Mandalgarh.

In West Bengal, voting will take place for Uluberia parliamentary and Noapara assembly constituencies. Uluberia is one of the Lok Sabha seats in the state with nearly 40 per cent Muslim population.  It must be noted that the Uluberia seat in Howrah district fell vacant after the death of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sultan Ahmed in September 2017. The Noapara Assembly seat in North 24 Paraganas fell vacant after the death of Congress MLA Madhusudhan Ghosh in April 2017.

The campaigning for today's bypolls for the Lok Sabha seats of Alwar and Ajmer, and the Assembly seat of Mandalgarh ended on January 27. The ruling BJP and opposition Congress held public meetings to woo voters in constituencies. All the preparations have been made, Ajmer District Election Officer Gaurav Goyal said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 29, 2018 08:44 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).