The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won three key by-poll elections in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar and is in stiff contest in Telangana and Odisha, whose results have not yet been declared. Rashtriya Janata Dal has won from one seat in Bihar while Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray faction's candidate has won the key bypoll in Maharashtra. Congress has been trailing in Odisha and Telangana while Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) has registered a lead in the state where its a neck and neck contest between the ruling TRS and BJP.
Bypolls were held on seven seats in six states on Thursday and the counting of votes is being held on Sunday, November 6.
The bypolls were held in Mokama and Gopalganj assembly constituencies of Bihar, Andheri (East) of Maharashtra, Adampur of Haryana, Munugode of Telangana, Gola Gokarannath of Uttar Pradesh, and Dhamnagar of Odisha. Of these seats, the BJP held three, the Congress two, and the Shiv Sena and the RJD one each.
Here are the seat-wise results and final trends of the by-polls:
Uttar Pradesh
The BJP's Aman Giri won the Gola Gokarannath Assembly bypoll on Sunday by defeating his nearest rival and Samajwadi Party candidate Vinay Tiwari by over 34,000 votes, a senior official said.
"Giri won by a margin of 34,298 votes. He received 1,24,810 votes and Tiwari got 90,512 votes," the official said.
After his victory, Giri said he will fulfil the dream of his father Arvind Giri, whose death in September necessitated the bypoll, and ensure development of the constituency.
He also thanked Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for promising to develop Gola Gokarannath as 'Chhota Kashi'.
Bihar
The BJP retained the Gopalganj assembly seat in Bihar, beating the RJD in a by-poll that turned out to be a cliffhanger of a contest.
BJP candidate Kusum Devi, wife MLA Subhash Singh whose death had necessitated the by-election, polled 70,032 votes, while RJD's Mohan Gupta got 68,243.
Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM and Mayawati's BSP, often accused of being the BJP's "B team" by the RJD, finished third and fourth respectively, together accounting for more than 20,000 votes.
Notably, BSP candidate Indira Yadav is the wife of Sadhu Yadav, younger brother of RJD president Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi. Sadhu Yadav had won the seat in 2000. Yadav has been disqualified from contesting polls after conviction in a case related to misbehavior with an IAS officer.
Meanwhile, The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday retained the Mokama assembly seat of Bihar in a by-poll necessitated by the disqualification of its MLA Anant Kumar Singh, an Election Commission.
Singh's wife Neelam Devi, who was the party's candidate, defeated her nearest BJP rival by a comfortable margin of more than 16,000 votes. She polled 79,744 votes, while BJP's Sonam Devi got 63,003.
Singh got disqualified in July this year after conviction by a Patna court in a case related to recovery of arms and explosives from his residence
Fifteen candidates are in the fray -- nine in Gopalganj and six in Mokama.
The Mokama seat fell vacant after the disqualification of sitting RJD MLA and local strongman Anant Singh due to a conviction in a criminal case and the Gopalganj elections were necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MLA Subhash Singh.
This is the first time that Bihar is having an electoral contest after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar walked out of the coalition with the BJP and formed government with the RJD-led block.
Haryana
BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi won the Adampur assembly segment by defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Jai Prakash by a margin of around 16,000 votes.
The final victory margin is yet to be declared, said an official.
Counting of votes for the bypoll to Adampur began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements. In the bypoll for the Adampur assembly segment in Hisar which was held on November 3, a turnout of 76.45 percent was recorded.
The bypoll was necessitated after former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal's younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as MLA and switched from the Congress to the BJP in August.
Telangana
The ruling TRS in Telangana on Sunday continued to maintain a lead over the BJP after six rounds of counting of votes in the by-poll to Munugode Assembly segment.
According to trends, TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy has cumulatively polled 38,521 votes after six rounds, while his nearest BJP rival Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy secured 36,352 votes. Congress nominee Palvai Sravanthi got only 12,025 votes.
Odisha
BJP candidate Suryabanshi Suraj widened his lead to 4,845 votes over his BJD rival Abanti Das for Dhamnagar bypoll in Odisha’s Bhadrak district. According to the EC, Suraj secured 45,321 votes after the 10th round of counting, while Das bagged 40,476.
Congress nominee Baba Harekrushna Sethi got 1,895 votes. An election official said a three-tier security arrangement is in place for the counting exercise.
A central supervisor, an assistant supervisor and a micro-observer are present along with party agents at the counting centre, the official said.
The Dhamnagar seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi in September.
Maharashtra
Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), on Sunday won the bypoll to Andheri (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai, an official said.
The November 3 byelection, necessitated due to the death of sitting Shiv Sena MLA and Rutuja Latke's Ramesh Latke in May this year, was a mere formality after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its candidate from the race.
This was the first electoral contest in Maharashtra after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed in June following a revolt by a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde.
The by-election was necessitated due to the death of Latke's husband and Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May.
(With PTI inputs)
