By-polls: BJP seals North East; Congress rises in Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan

New Delhi: Bypolls for 51 assembly constituencies in 16 states and one union territory and two parliamentary constituencies in as many states were held on May 21 and counting was undertaken on Thursday.

Eleven assembly seats were contested in Uttar Pradesh, six in Maharashtra, five in Kerala, four each in Punjab and Assam, three in Sikkim, two each in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, and one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Puducherry and Telangana, whereas one parliamentary seat was contested each in Bihar and Maharashtra.

In Arunachal Pradesh, by-polls were held for one assembly seat and counting of votes began at 8 a.m. today and independent candidate Chakat Aboh has won over independent nominee Azet Homtok.

An estimated 89 per cent of the over 10,000 voters had exercised their franchise in the by-election. Chakat Aboh, the wife of National People's Party (NPP) leader Tirong Aboh who was shot dead in May, was unanimously fielded by five major political parties in the state, including the ruling BJP.

At an all-party meeting attended by top leaders of the ruling BJP, and opposition Congress, JD(U), NPP and the PPA decided that none of them will field any candidate against Chakat Aboh to ensure peace in the area, a resolution adopted by them on Saturday said.

The ruling Congress won three Assembly seats, while the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won one in the Punjab by-polls.

While the Congress won the Jalalabad, Phagwara and Mukerian seats, the SAD came up trumps in Dakha. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh hailed his party's victory in three of the four Assembly segments, particularly in SAD president Sukhbir Badal's "self-proclaimed" stronghold of Jalalabad, and described it as a total rejection of the negative agenda of the Akalis.

The highest polling was witnessed in Jalalabad at 75.46 per cent, followed by 71.64 per cent in Dakha and 58.62 per cent in Mukerian. The Phagwara reserve seat recorded a voter turnout of 55.97 per cent.

The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF registered impressive wins at Vattiyoorkavu and Konni, the two strongholds of the Congress headed UDF, while the opposition front retained the Ernakulam seat.

Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Prasanth, who contested at Vattiyoorkavu constituency won with a margin of 14,465 votes against his nearest rival, Congress party's K Mohankumar, while K U Jinesh Kumar won from Konni by a margin of 9,953 votes.

The UDF candidate T J Vinod won the Ernakulam seat by a margin of 3,750 votes defeating Manu Roy (LDF-IND). While the three results were declared by the Election Commission, two more results are expected any time soon.

The ruling Congress won the Chitrakot Assembly by-poll. Congress' Rajman Benzam won the bypoll from the naxal-affected constituency, reserved for



Scheduled Tribes, by a margin of 17,862 votes against Lachhuram Kashyap of the BJP.

Benzam polled 62,097 votes while Kashyap secured 44,235 votes. The voter turnout was 78.12 per cent. The by-poll to Chitrakot was necessitated after Congress MLA Deepak Baij got elected to the Lok Sabha from Bastar.

Last month the BJP had lost Dantewada assembly by-poll to the Congress. It took the saffron party's strength in the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly to 14, while the ruling Congress' numbers went up to 69.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan won the assembly by-poll to Mandawa seat while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) retained the Khinwsar constituency.

The BJP and RLP had contested the by-poll to Khinwsar seat as allies. The Congress' Rita Chaudhary defeated her nearest rival the BJP's Sushila Sigra in the Mandawa seat in Jhunjhunu by a margin of 33,704 votes. Chaudhary got 59.33 per cent of the total votes polled.

The Khinwsar seat in Nagaur was won by the RLP's Narayan Beniwal, who is the brother of the party convener and MP Hanuman Beniwal. Narayan Beniwal defeated his nearest rival Congress' Harendra Mirdha, a former minister, by a margin of 4,630 votes.

The by-polls were necessitated after BJP MLA Narendra Kumar from Mandawa and RLP MLA Hanuman Beniwal were elected as Members of Parliament in May this year.

The ruling NDA in Bihar came out with a dismal performance in by-elections to five assembly segments of the state, touted as the "semi-final" ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls scheduled next year.

But, in Samastipur Lok Sabha seat, its constituent LJP, seems poised to comfortably retain the reserved constituency which fell vacant upon the death of party's sitting MP Ram Chandra Paswan.

His son Prince Raj won against the Congress rival Ashok Kumar by a margin of more than 80,000 votes in Samastipur Parliamentary seat.

The poor showing of the ruling coalition in the assembly by-elections has come months after it won 39 out of a total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the parliamentary poll in the state.

BJD's Rita Sahu wins the Bijepur bye-election with a record margin of 97,990 votes. The victory margin is the highest in the history of Odisha Assembly elections as the previous highest margin was 94,555 that was secured by Bishwa Bhushan Harichandan in 2000 Assembly elections.

The Bijepur by-poll was warranted after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated his seat after retaining his traditional seat Hinjilicut in the 2019 general elections. Notably, BJD had never won this seat in 15 years till 2018.

TN CM Palaniswami says "it is a victory for truth" as AIADMK appears set to wrest both the Vikravandi and Nanguneri Assembly constituencies from the opposition, top leader and Chief Minister K Palaniswami said it is a victory for truth.