Rajasthan& WB Bye-poll results: Congress wins Rajasthan's Mandalgarh seat, TMC wins Naopara and Uluberia in Bengal

Counting of votes has been underway on Thursday for the bye-elections that were held in Rajasthan and West Bengal on Monday.

In Rajasthan, bye-elections were held in two Lok Sabha seats, Alwar and Ajmer, and one Assembly constituency, Mandalgarh. All three seats fell vacant in 2017 following the deaths of the incumbents – Ajmer’s MP Sanwar Lal Jat, Mandalgarh MLA Kirti Kumari and Alwar MP Mahant Chand Nath.

In a blow to the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan, Congress’ Vivek Dhakad won the Mandalgarh Assembly constituency by 12,976 votes.

The Congress has maintained a significant lead in the Lok Sabha seats as well. With over 82% of the ballots counted, Congress candidate Karan Singh Yadav was leading with 5,20,434 votes against 3,75,520 votes the BJP’s candidate Jaswant Singh Yadav had received, the Rajasthan Election Commission’s website showed.

In Ajmer, the Congress was ahead of the BJP by 84,168 votes with nearly 70% of the votes counted. Its candidate



Raghu Sharma was leading with 4,39,012 votes.

Earlier, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot said initial trends from the bye-polls are a mandate against the government. “I hope our leads will increase,” he told ANI. “Vasundhara Raje and her government have been totally rejected by people.”

West Bengal bye-elections

In West Bengal, elections were held for the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat and the Noapara Assembly seat, both necessitated again by the deaths of the incumbents.

In Noapara, the Trinamool Congress’ Sunil Singh won the bye-elections with 1,11,729 votes. The BJP’s Sandip Banerjee came second receiving 38,711 votes, followed by Gargi Chaterjee of the CPI (M) with 35,487 votes and the Congress’ Goutam Bose who received 10,527 votes. More than 3,400 people voted for None of the Above option in Noapara.

In Uluberia, the TMC’s Sajda Ahamed, widow of lawmaker Sultan Ahmed, won the election by a margin of 2,89,557 votes, The Indian Express reported.