Ruling parties sweep by-polls in five states

The BJP won the Panaji seat and the Congress the Liromoba seat in Arunachal Pradesh. However, the BJP, which has been trying to make inroads into West Bengal, came second in the bypoll for the Assembly seat and third in the Lok Sabha election. 

The Trinamool won Bongaon in North 24 Parganas by more than two lakh votes. At Krishnaganj in Nadia, the margin was about 40,000. 

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu retained the high-profile Srirangam Assembly seat in the byelection by defeating its arch rival DMK with a huge margin, the results of which were announced here on Monday.

In Andhra Pradesh, the TDP retained the Tirupati Assembly seat, but Congress candidate Rudraraju Sreedevi lost her deposit. TDP candidate and wife of former MLA M Suguna defeated R Sreedevi by a margin of 1,16,524 votes. The byelection was caused by the death of the TDP legislator M Venkatramana.

 The Congress retained the Liromoba Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh with its candidate Nyamar Karbak defeating his BJP rival by a slender margin of 119 votes. The byelection was necessitated by the death of former chief minister Jarbom Gamlin on November 30 last year.