The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured the maximum number of seats on Sunday as vote counting completed for by-elections to seven constituencies in six states – Dhamnagar Assembly seat of Odisha, Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Bhajan Lal family bastion Admapur in Haryana and Gopalganj assembly seat in Bihar.
In Munugode’s high-voltage sub-poll, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) won the narrow battle against the BJP, while the Shiv-Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray won the Andheri (East) seat in Maharashtra. The RJD retained the Mokama assembly seat in Bihar.
Maharashtra
Shiv Sena’s (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) candidate, Rutuja Latke, won the side poll for the Andheri (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai, bagging more than 66,000 votes, followed by 12,806 votes in favor of the None Of The Above ( NOTA) were submitted. The by-election was necessitated by the deaths in May of incumbent Shiv Sena MLA and Rutuja Latke’s husband, Ramesh Latke. Latke was pitted against six independent candidates out of which Rajesh Tripathi received 1,571 votes, Neena Khedekar 1,531, Bala Nadar 1,515, Farhana Sayed 1,093, Manoj Nayak 900 while Milind Kamble received 624 votes.
Uddhav Thackeray said the results show people support Shiv Sena. “This is just the beginning of a fight. The (party) symbol is important, but people also look for the character. The results of the side poll show that people support us,” Thackeray said.
This was the first election campaign in Maharashtra since the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June following a revolt by a section of Shiv Sena’s MLAs led by Eknath Shinde.
Bihar
The ruling ‘Mahagathbandhan’ and opposition NDA remained even with respective victories as RJD candidate Neelam Devi won the Mokama seat by 79,744 votes and a 16,000 vote margin over BJP’s Sonam Devi who received 63,003 votes while Kusum Devi BJP’s Gopalganj seat retained 70,053 votes against RJD’s Mohan Gupta who received 68,258. The by-elections were necessitated by the disqualification of Mokama MLA Anant Kumar Singh (RJD) and the death of Gopalganj MP Subhash Singh (BJP).
Bihar saw the first electoral test for the Nitish Kumar-led “Mahagathbandhan” government, formed less than three months ago after the JD(U) split from the BJP. The BJP stood for the first time from the Mokama constituency as the Saffron party had ceded the seat to its allies on previous occasions.
Odisha
The opposition BJP retained the parliamentary seat in Dhamnagar, defeating the ruling BJD by a margin of 9,881 votes. The debriefing was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi in September. Sethi’s son Suryabanshi Suraj, the party’s candidate, received 80,351 votes, while Abanti Das of the BJD received 70,470 votes. Congressional candidate Baba Harekrushna Sethi received only 3,561 votes.
Uttar Pradesh
The BJP retained the seat in the Gola Gokarannath assembly, with its candidate Aman Giri defeating his closest rival and Samajwadi party candidate Vinay Tiwariby by over 34,000 votes. Giri won 1,24,810 votes while Tiwari received 90,512 votes. The Gola Gokarannath seat became vacant following the death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri on 6 September. After winning the election, Giri said he would fulfill his father Arvind Giri’s dream and ensure the development of the constituency. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath congratulated the BJP workers on the victory and thanked the people of Gola Gokarannath for supporting Aman Giri. “Warmest congratulations to all the hard workers and respected voters for @BJP4UP’s great victory in the sub-poll at Gola Gokarnnath Assembly Headquarters,” Adityanath said in a Hindi tweet.
Telangana
In the high-stakes Munugode side poll, TRS contestant Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy secured a total of 96,598 votes after 15 rounds, while rival BJP’s Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy received 86,485 votes each. Congressional candidate Palvai Sravanthi received only 23,864 votes. The by-election was necessitated by the resignation from the party in August of incumbent MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who later joined the BJP.
Haryana
The BJP won the Adampur Assembly seat with BJP candidate and grandson of former Prime Minister Bhajan Lal Bhavya Bishnoi retaining his family bastion by defeating Congressional candidate Jai Prakash by a margin of 15,740 votes. Bishnoi received 67,492 votes while Prakash received 51,752 votes. The resignation of Bhavya’s father, Kuldeep Bishnoi, necessitated a by-election after he left Congress and joined the BJP. The Adampur Seat has been held by the family of Bhajan Lal since 1968, with the late leader deputizing for him nine times, his wife Jasma Devi once and Kuldeep four times.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also expressed his gratitude to the people of the Adampur area for ensuring a bhavya (great) victory. “This is the victory of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji’s policies, public trust and the hard work of all workers,” Khattar said in his tweet.
(With inputs from PTI)
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