New Delhi, 26 June: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) virtually swept the by-elections held in the country bagging two out of the three Lok Sabha seats, and three out of the seven state assembly seats.
Though Azamgarh LS seat and Jharkhand’s Mandar assembly seats are to be officially declared but according to trends the result is near certain in Azamgarh Lok Sabha for the BJP candidate while Shilpa Neha Tirkey of the Congress is set to win Mandar assembly seat with a comfortable margin.
The BJP won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh, considered a stronghold of SP leader Azam Khan. The Samajwadi Party (SP) had to face a humiliating defeat at the hands of Ghanshyam Lodhi of BJP (3, 67,397 votes) who defeated Asim Raja of SP (3, 25,205 votes).
In Azamgarh, Bhojpuri film superstar Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirhua of the BJP got 2, 99,968 votes in the counting of votes so far. SP’s Dharmendra Yadav got 2, 90,835 votes, and BSP’s Guddu Jamali got 2, 57,572 votes. Nirahua is leading with a margin of over 9,000 votes.
However, there has been a big change in the Sangrur seat of Punjab. The Aam Aadmi Party, which got a thumping majority in the assembly elections in Punjab, seems to be losing its ground. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann won the seat by 5,822 votes. Bhagwant Mann had won this seat twice. After becoming the Chief Minister of Punjab, he resigned from the membership of the Lok Sabha. After this a by-election was held here.
In the state assembly by-polls in Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha won from Town Bardowali seat by 6,104 votes. The BJP has also won the Jabrajnagar and Soorma seats. Congress candidate Sudip Roy Burman has won in Agartala.
In Delhi’s Rajindra Nagar assembly seat, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has once again waved its flag. AAP candidate Durgesh Pathak has won by 11,468 votes. Pathak got a total of 40,319 votes, while BJP’s Rajesh Bhatia came second with 28,851 votes. The Congress party got only 2014 votes.
The ruling YSR Congress won the Andhra Pradesh’s Atmakur seat by-polls. M Vikram Reddy has defeated his nearest candidate Bharat Kumar of the BJP by 82,888 votes.
Counting of votes for the Mandar assembly by-election in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is underway. Congress’ Shilpi Neha Tirkey, the joint candidate of the ruling coalition in the 18th phase, is leading by 17,651 votes in a tight contest over her nearest rival Gangotri Kujur of the BJP.
