NDA wins 26 seats, Congress 12 of 51 assembly bypolls across 18 states

The Samajwadi Party turned out to be a major gainer in Uttar Pradesh, wresting a seat each from the ruling BJP and the BSP, while the NDA got eight, one less than it held.

The SP turned out to be a major gainer in UP assembly bypolls, wresting a seat each from the ruling BJP and the BSP, while the NDA got eight, one less than it held, as final results were declared on Thursday for the 11 seats that went to polls this week.

In the bypolls for the Pratapgrah assembly seat, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Apna Dal (S) alliance candidate Rajkumar Pal won the seat by margin of over 35,000 votes from his nearest rival, Brijesh Patel of Samajwadi Party (SP). However, the big surprise was the performance of AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen) party’s candidate Israr Ahammad who stood at third position, beating the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidates.

The BJP created history of sorts in Sikkim as it bagged two of the three assembly seats in the by-poll results declared on Thursday. The BJP, which earlier polled less than 2 percent votes in the assembly elections, had tied up with the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) party and contested from two of the three seats that went for voting on October 21.

The UP byelections left behind a flicker of hope for the grand old party which was decimated to just one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Though the party could not win even a single seat, its vote share doubled. The party, which finished fourth on most seats in the 2019 Lok sabha elections secured the second position on three of the 11 seats where election was held.

The results of bypolls in Gujarat on Thursday threw up a surprise, with the opposition Congress poised evenly with the ruling BJP in the six assembly bypolls. Alpesh Thakor, who quit the Congress to join BJP last month, was poised to lose his seat while his aide Dhavalsinh Zala was defeated from his constituency.

Caste polarisation against BJP and Congress in Dharamshala constituency of Himachal Pradesh has brought an independent candidate in fight against ruling party BJP and out-shined Congress. Caste factor had made the elections here a triangular contest. Independent candidate, a BJP rebel, Rakesh Chaudhary stood at second place with 16740 votes, he was second after BJP (23,498 votes). Chaudhary also surpassed Congress (8212 votes).

AIADMK’s MR Muthamizhselvan and V Narayanan won the byelections to Vikravandi and Nanguneri assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. In Vikravandi, Muthamizhselvan beat DMK’s N Pugalenthi by a margin of 44,924 votes. Muthamizhselvan secured 113,766 votes while Pugalenthi got 68, 842votes.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan won the assembly bypoll to Mandawa seat while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) retained the Khinwsar constituency. The BJP and RLP had contested the bypoll to Khinwsar seat in alliance.

Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday hailed the Congress victory in 3 of the 4 assembly segments where bypolls were held, particularly in Sukhbir Badal’s “self-proclaimed stronghold” of Jalalabad, as a total rejection of the negative agenda of the Akalis, who continued to indulge in petty politicking in the wild hope of regaining the confidence of the people.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won on the two assembly seats of Dharamshala and Pachhad that went to bypolls in Himachal Pradesh. Vishal Nehria of BJP won from Dharamshala constituency. He won over his nearest rival, Rakesh Kumar from 6758 votes. Nehria polled 44.81 per cent of the votes cast in the constituency. Reena Kashyap of BJP won from Pachhad constituency. Kashyap polled 40.85 per cent of votes cast in the constituency.

Madhya Pradesh: Congress' Kantilal Bhuria defeats BJP nominee Bhanu Bhuria in Jhabua assembly bypoll by over 27,800 votes.

The SP wrested the Zaidpur seat from the ruling BJP as votes were counted for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls on Thursday, while the saffron party retained the Balha and Lucknow Cantonment seats and its ally Apna Dal (S) held on to Pratapgarh, even as the results for seven other seats were yet to be announced.

Samastipur Lok Sabha bypoll: Prince Raj of LJP wins by defeating Ashok Kumar of Congress by over 1 lakh votes.

BJD created electoral history as its candidate Rita Sahu won Bijepur by-election by a record margin of 97,990 votes from BJP’s Sanat Gartia. The margin is the highest ever in BJD’s electoral history. The by-election was necessitated after chief minister Naveen Patnaik vacated the seat while retaining Hinjili in the last assembly election after winning from both the seats.

Ghosi assembly by-election: BJP's Vijay Rajbhar defeats SP-supported candidate Sudhakar Singh.

Punjab Bypolls: SAD wins Dakha seat

In a blow to Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Manpreet Singh Ayali defeats ruling party nominee Sandeep Singh Sandhu from the Dakha seat by a margin of 14,672 votes. The Dakha seat fell vacant following the resignation of former AAP leader and noted Supreme Court lawyer HS Phoolka from the state assembly.

UP: Samajwadi Party wins Zaidpur assembly bypoll

Samajwadi Party's Gaurav Kumar won the Zaidpur assembly bypoll defeating the BJP candidate. Kumar defeated BJP's candidate Amrish by a margin of 4,165 votes.

Radhanpur (Patan district): OBC leader and BJP candidate Alpesh Thakor accepts his defeat. He blames casteism, money and muscle power.

The ruling NDA in Bihar came out with a dismal performance on Thursday in byelections to five assembly segments of the state, touted as the "semi-final" ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls scheduled next year.