The opposition INDIA bloc looked set to rout the ruling NDA by winning ten of the 13 seats where by-elections were held earlier this week.
The BJP, which had the rude shock of failing to clear the majority mark in last month’s Lok Sabha elections, went home with two assembly seat.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress swept the Bengal bypolls, winning all four seats by a landslide. In Himachal Pradesh, Congress clinched two of the three seats up for grabs, with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Thakur emerging as a giant slayer in Dehra.
In Uttarkahand, Congress was able to grab both Badrinath, and Manglaur assembly seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which rules in Punjab, secured the Jalandhar West constituency in a three-cornered contest. In Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) secured Vikravandi assembly constituency.
The counting of votes began at 8 am at key constituencies in West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Bihar.
Here are the latest developments:
In Punjab’s Jalandhar West seat, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Surinder Kaur by 37.325 votes. Bypolls were announced in the constituency after Sheetal Angural, the AAP legislator, jumped ship to the BJP.
On its home turf of Himachal Pradesh, the Congress put up a strong show in all three seats that went to bypolls. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu congratulated his wife Kamlesh Thakur for her win in Dehra. Thakur beat her nearest rival, BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh, by a margin of 9,399 votes.
Hardeep Singh Bawa of the Congress defeated BJP’s KL Thakur in Nalagarh by 8,990 votes. In the Hamirpur seat, BJP candidate Ashish Sharma narrowly beat Congress’s Pushpinder Verma by a margin of 1,571 votes.
All three BJP candidates used to be independent legislators, who resigned from the Himachal assembly after voting for the saffron party in the Rajya Sabha polls earlier this year.
In West Bengal, where four seats are up for grabs, Trinamool Congress’s Madhupurna Thakur, Mukut Mani Adhikari, Krishna Kalyani, and Supti Pandey won by a landslide in Bagda, Ranaghat, Raiganj, and Maniktala respectively.
Madhuparna (25), the daughter of Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Mamatabala Thakur, is set to be the youngest member of the Bengal assembly.
In Uttarakhand’s Manglaur, Congress candidate Qazi Nizamuddin defeated BJP nominee Kartar Singh Bhadana by a margin of 422 votes. The constituency had witnessed violence on the day of polling.
In Badrinath, Congress newcomer Lakhpat Singh Butola defeated BJP’s Rajendra Bhandari by a margin of 5,224 votes.
The ruling DMK’s candidate Anniyur Siva (alias Sivashanmugam A) won the Vikravandi assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu with 1,24,053 votes. He defeated C Anbumani and Naam Tamilar Katchi’s K Abinaya.
In Bihar, JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal was defeated by an independent candidate Shankar Singh, in the Rupauli bypoll by a margin of 8,246 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA Bima Bharti, who quit the JD(U) to contest Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket.
In the Amarwara constituency in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, Kamlesh Pratap Shah of the BJP defeated Congress’ Dheeran Shah Invati by a margin of 3,027 votes.
The seat fell vacant after three-time Congress MLA Kamlesh Shah switched to the BJP in March. The outcome is being closely watched, as Chhindwara was considered a stronghold of senior Congress leader Kamal Nath until recently.