New Delhi [India], May 31 (NT): The counting of votes for by-Polls to 4 Lok Sabha seats and 10 assembly constituencies will be conducted today.

Lok Sabha Bypolls:

The Lok Sabha seats which went for polls were:

1. Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra;

 2. Politically-crucial Kairana Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh,

 3. Nagaland parliamentary constituency.

It will be a litmus test for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a affirmative result is essential for the saffron party to uphold its majority in the Lok Sabha.

The outcomes will also test the spirit of a united opposition with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though, after losing from Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the BJP had profusely campaigned to win the Kairana seat.

Similarly, in Maharashtra's Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya, all four major parties -- the BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress left no stone unturned to woo the electorates in their favour.

Elections were necessitated in Kairana after the seat fell vacant in February following the death of BJP leader Hukum Singh. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of Singh, from this seat.

Assembly Bye-polls:

The by-elections were held in Legislative Assemblies -

1.Shahkot (Punjab),

2.Tharali (Uttarakhand),

3.Ampati (Meghalaya),

4.Chengannur (Kerala),

5. Jokihat (Bihar),

6. Gomia (Jharkhand)

7.Maheshtala (West Bengal),

8.Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh),

9. Palus Kadegaon (Maharashtra).

10. Silli (Jharkhand)

These bye-polls were also flawed with the complaints of faulty EVMs and in the view of which the election commission had to put back the defective machines at certain places after which rerolling was conducted on a number of booths on Wednesday. (NT)