The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday announced the candidates for the Assembly bypolls in the States of Odisha, Telangana, Jharkhand and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with repeat candidates and, in some cases, the relatives of incumbents whose passing had necessitated the bypoll.
The BJP re-nominated Babulal Soren, son of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren for the bypoll in Ghatsila Assembly seat. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Ramdas Soren. In the 2024 Jharkhand Assembly election, Mr. Ramdas had defeated Mr. Babulal with a margin of 22,446 votes. The Ghatsila Assembly seat is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and falls under the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
In J&K, the BJP announced the names of Aga Syed Mohsin for the Budgam constituency in the Kashmir Valley, and Devyani Rana for the Nagrota constituency in the Jammu division. Ms. Rana is the daughter of former legislator, the late Devender Singh Rana, and niece of Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
“We are confident of winning. The work done over the past year has been appreciated by people. I intend to take forward the vision of Rana sahib for Nagrota,” Ms. Rana said.
In Budgam, which has a sizeable population of Shia Muslims, the BJP has fielded a Shia candidate, who comes from the clergy and is entrenched in the voter base of the constituency. Mr. Mohsin is the son of the late Shia cleric Aga Syed Mustafa Moosavi.
In Odisha, where the BJP is the ruling party, it announced the name of Jay Dholakia as its candidate from the Nuapada Assembly seat, which fell vacant following the death of his father and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Rajendra Dholakia. In a surprise move, Mr. Jay Dholakia had joined the BJP only last week. Chief Minister Mohan Majhi is likely to fly to Nuapada to accompany the BJP candidate during the filing of his nomination for the bypoll.
The BJD, on its part, announced Snehangini Chhuria, a former Minister and a strongwoman leader from western Odisha, as the party’s candidate for Nuapada. Earlier, the Congress had named Ghasiram Majhi, who fought the last election as an Independent candidate from Nuapada.
In Telangana, the BJP also announced Lankala Deepak Reddy as its candidate for the upcoming Jubilee Hills bypoll, necessitated due to the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year.
All the bypolls are scheduled to be held on November 11, along with the second phase of the Bihar Assembly election with results to be announced on November 14, again along with the Bihar poll results.
Published – October 15, 2025 09:52 pm IST
