Pic: Tripura CM Manik Saha rejoices with supporters
Bypolls to three Lok Sabha and seven Assembly seats were held across six states Friday. Counting of votes began Sunday morning. The bypolls will help the poll panel fill up vacancies in the electoral college which elects the President of India. The Presidential election is due July 18.
The ruling BJP won three Assembly seats and the Congress bagged one in the high-stakes Tripura bypolls. CM Manik Saha, a BJP candidate, secured 17,181 votes winning the Town Bardowali seat. Saha, a Rajya Sabha MP, was appointed chief minister last month after CM Biplab Deb’s sudden resignation, ascribed to “personal reasons.” Saha had to win this by-election to continue as the chief minister. He will now resign as an MP after being elected to the Assembly, as per the rules.
In a major setback to AAP in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann won in chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s stronghold Sangrur with a margin of over 5,000 votes.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, BJP candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi won with a margin of over 40,000 votes. In Azamgarh too, reports indicate a BJP win with candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav maintaining a lead over rival Dharmendra Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.
The bypolls were necessitated due to the resignations of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and party leader Azam Khan from Azamgarh and Rampur seats respectively.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Durgesh Pathak has won Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar bypoll by over 11,000 votes. The bypoll was necessitated in the wake of AAP leader Raghav Chadha leaving the seat after being elected to the Rajya Sabha recently.
The by-election in Jharkhand was necessitated after the disqualification of MLA Bandhu Tirkey post his conviction in a corruption case. The Congress fielded his daughter, Shilpi Neha Tirkey, as the common candidate of the ruling JMM-led coalition, while the BJP nominated former MLA Gangotri Kujur in the seat. Independent candidate Dev Kumar Dhan, backed by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), also contested the Jharkhand bypolls.
The by-election in Andhra Pradesh was held to fill a vacancy after Industries Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy died in February. His younger brother Vikram Reddy is the ruling YSR Congress candidate. The BJP candidate is G Bharat Kumar Yadav.
Also Read: Bypoll Results Today; SP Leading In Azamgarh, Rampur
