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

Manheshwar: IUML candidate MC Kamaruddin leads in the first round.

Counting began half-an-hour late in Nanguneri. It is underway at the government engineering college in Tirunelveli.

Counting of votes for Satara Lok Sabha bypoll began at 8am.

Counting of votes for byelections to six assembly constituencies in Gujarat has begun.

There will be 22 rounds of counting in Vikravandi and Nanguneri constituencies and first postal votes will be taken up for counting at 8am.

The result is crucial for Congress, which badly needs the victory in Huzurnagar after the debacle in December 2018 assembly polls. The party suffered further setback after 12 of its 19 MLAs defected to TRS. The party managed to salvage some pride by winning three Lok Sabha seats and managing to come close to winning two other parliamentary seats.

The results of the four assembly byelections in Punjab will be out on Thursday. Congress had taken on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Jalalabad and Dakha and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mukerian and Phagwara (reserved) seats. S Karuna Raju, chief electoral officer (CEO), Punjab, said arrangements had been made for counting of votes and the process would begin at 8am. Voting was held on October 21.

The bitterly fought Huzurnagar byelection result is expected by Thursday afternoon even as both TRS and Congress claimed victories. A victory for the ruling party is essential after it suffered a setback in April 2019 Lok Sabha polls where Congress and BJP won three and four seats respectively.