NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP in Gujarat has swept five of the six seats – two Lok Sabha and three assembly seats – to which bypolls were held last Sunday, while the JD (U) in Bihar is all set to suffer a setback in Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat.
BJP is also leading in the sixth assembly seat of Dhoraji, which fell vacant after Vithhal Radadia left Congress to join BJP and resigned as an MLA. BJP candidate Pravin Mankadia is fighting against Congress rival Haribhai Patel on the seat. The party is leading by 6,803 votes after 26 rounds of counting.
All the six seats were earlier with the Congress party.
The BJP registered a significant win in the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat where Vithhal Radadia, who was caught brandishing his gun at a toll booth last year when he was a Congress MP and later crossed over BJP, won the seat with over 1,28,000 votes.
The Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Mukesh Gadhvi, was won by Haribhai Chaudhary of BJP with the margin of more than 71,000 votes over his Congress rival Krishna Gadhvi, wife of Mukesh Gadhvi.
BJP’s Jayesh Radadia, who also defected from Congress with his father Vithhal Radadia, won the Jetpur assembly seat defeating Jagdish Pambhar of the Congress.
Nimisha Suthar of the BJP won the Morva Hadaf (ST) assembly seat by defeating Congress candidate Bhupendrasinh Khant. The seat was held by Bhupendrasinh’s mother Savita Khant, who died during the counting of assembly elections last December.
Former state minister and BJP leader Kiritsinh Rana won Limbadi seat by defeating Congress candidate Satish Patel.
The by-election was necessitated after Congress MP Soma Patel, who won Limbadi assembly seat too, resigned as an MLA. Congress had fielded his son Satish Patel on the seat.
RJD leads in Maharajganj
In Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar is all set to suffer a setback with JD (U) candidate PK Shahion on the verge of losing to RJD’s Prabhunath Singh in the Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat.
The RJD has established a big lead of over 78,000 votes over the ruling JD (U) at the end of the 11th round of counting.
Congress nominee Jitendra Swami is still much behind.
After the 11th round, RJD’s Prabhunath Singh had polled 2,34,651 votes, JD (U)’s PK Shahi bagged 1,56,400 votes and Congress’ Jitendra Swami managed only 22,160 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated after the death of Umashankar Singh, an RJD MP and father of Congress candidate Jitendra Swami.
Speaking to TV channels, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said that the people of the state were fed up with the wrong policies of the Nitish government.
He said the result was a vote against Nitish Kumar and this was the beginning of the fall of the JD (U) in Bihar.
Trinamool wins Howrah Lok Sabha seat
In Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidate Prasun Banerjee won the Howrah Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival, CPM candidate Sridip Bhattacherjee, by over 27,000 votes.
Though official results were still to be declared, Election Commission sources said that Prasun Banerjee secured 4,26,273 votes and Sridip Bhattacherjee 3,99,258 votes.
Congress candidate Sanatan Mukherjee was in third spot polling 96,727 votes.
The sources said that counting of 300 votes in one EVM which developed a technical malfunction would be taken up before the official declaration of the result.
The seat fell vacant following the death of TMC MP Ambika Banerjee.
Senior TMC leader and panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters that the poll result would give a boost to the party before next month’s crucial panchayat elections.
The result proves that people reposed their faith on the performance of Mamata Banerjee government in the past two years, he said.-PTI
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