New Delhi, November 2
The BJP, Congress and the Shiv Sena were leading in one Lok Sabha seat each, and Assembly segments threw up a similar mixed bag with trends favouring ruling parties in several states as votes were counted on Tuesday for a crucial by-election contest across 13 states.
Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 Assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of Assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
Though there was no discernible wave, some states stood out. Voters in Assam and West Bengal, for instance, gave a decisive thumbs up to the ruling alliances. And in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling BJP was headed for an upset with the opposition Congress looking set to gain.
In the Lok Sabha by-elections, an emotional connect seemed to give an edge to candidates in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, according to trends on the Election Commission website.
Opposition Congress’ Pratibha Singh, late chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife, was ahead of her nearest rival, Kargil war hero and BJP candidate Brigadier Khushal Thakur (retd) in Mandi. And Shiv Sena’s Kalaben Delkar, the wife of former independent MP, the late Mohan Delkar, took a decisive lead in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat.
In the parliamentary seat of Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP’s Gyaneshwar Patil was ahead of his Congress rival Rajnarayan Singh Purni.
Assembly by-elections were held on five seats in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each is in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana.
Of the 29, the BJP had won in around half a dozen constituencies earlier, the Congress had nine, while the rest were with regional parties.
ASSAM: The ruling BJP and its allies looked set to win all five Assembly seats in the state. BJP candidates were leading in Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra constituencies. All three – Phanidhar Talukdar, Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain – were elected to the Assembly in the election in March-April this year on opposition party tickets but subsequently resigned and joined the BJP.
In the other two seats of Gossaigaon and Tamulpur, BJP ally UPPL was ahead, according to data available with the poll panel.
ANDHRA PRADESH: The ruling YSR Congress’s Dasari Sudha, the widow of the late Venkata Subbaiah, the sitting legislator, was set to trounce the BJP’s Panatala Suresh with a huge margin of more than 90,000 votes in what was being seen as a one-sided contest.
BIHAR: It appeared to be one all for the ruling JD-U and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the state. While JD-U’s Aman Bhushan Hajari looked set to win the Kusheshwar Asthan seat, RJD’s Arun Kumar was poised for victory in Tarapur.
HARYANA: INLD secretary general Abhay Singh Chautala was ahead of his nearest rival, Gobind Kanda of the ruling BJP, in the Ellenabad Assembly constituency.
HIMACHAL PRADESH: The opposition Congress was leading in all three assembly seats, Jubbal-Kotkhai, Arki and Fatehpur in the BJP-ruled hill state. The BJP had won from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and Jubbal-Kotkhai in 2017, while the Congress had previously bagged Arki and Fatehpur.
KARNATAKA: The ruling BJP’s Ramesh Bhusanur was leading in Sindgi, while the Congress’ Srinivas Mane was ahead in Hangal.
MADHYA PRADESH: The ruling BJP’s Shishupal Singh Yadav in the Prithvipur assembly seat and Sulochana Rawat in Jobat (reserved) and the Congress’ Kalpana Verma in Raigaon were ahead in the votes race.
MAHARASHTRA: Congress candidate Jitesh Raosaheb Antapurkar was leading over BJP’s Subhash Pirajirao Sabne in the Deglur (SC) Assembly bypoll.
MEGHALAYA: Ruling party NPP was poised to win the Rajabala assembly constituency with its candidate Md Abdus Saleh ahead of the Congress’s Hashina Yashmin Mondal. The NPP was also ahead of the Congress in Mawryngkneng. In the third assembly seat of Mawphalang, the UDP was leading over the Congress, according to the Election Commission website.
MIZORAM: The ruling Mizo National Front’s K Laldawngliana was poised to win the Tuirial assembly seat in Mizoram with over 39 per cent of the votes against his nearest opponent Laltlanmawia of the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM).
RAJASTHAN: The state’s ruling Congress looked set to win the Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar assembly constituencies. According to latest trends, Nagraj Meena was leading over BJP candidate Khet Singh Meena in Dhariawad. In Vallabhnagar, Preeti Shaktawat was ahead of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s Udailal Dangi.
TELANGANA: BJP’s Eatala Rajender was leading over his nearest TRS rival Gellu Srinivas Yadav in the Huzurabad assembly constituency bypoll in Telangana.
WEST BENGAL: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress looked set to keep up its victory streak with its candidates scoring big leads against their rivals in the four Assembly constituencies of Khardah, Santipur, Gosaba and Dinhata.
