Bypoll results: BJP retains 4 assembly seats, RJD bags 1
What's the story
Results for bypolls of 7 assembly seats across 6 states, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana, began emerging as the counting got underway on Sunday. Till evening, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had retained Gola Gokarnnath in UP, Adampur in Haryana, Gopalganj in Bihar, and Dhamnagar in Odisha. Meanwhile, the ruling Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) retained Mokama Assembly constituency in Patna, Bihar.
Details
How contest stands at other seats
Andheri East in Maharashtra went to Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction. The vote counting of two seats, Munugode and Dhamnagar, was still going on before BJP clinched the latter. In Munugode, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) defeated BJP in a closely fought contest. Previously out of seven seats, the BJP held three, the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
Haryana
All parties slug it out
For Haryana's Adampur seat, the battle was between Indian National Lok Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP, and Congress. The by-poll was necessitated after ex-chief minister Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi stepped down as MLA from the seat and moved to BJP from the Congress in August and contested the bypoll as the BJP candidate.
Maharashtra
Shiv Sena (Uddhav) marks win
In Andheri East, the Sena faction's candidate Rutuja Latke,- widow of former Sena MLA Ramesh Latke - won the bypoll comfortably as BJP decided not to contest. This is the first electoral battle after the revolt in the Shiv Sena by Eknath Shinde and 39 other legislators, which resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Bihar
RJD wins one of two seats
BJP was outperformed by the RJD in one of two constituencies in Bihar. RJD candidate Neelam Devi, wife of Anant Singh who was disqualified after being convicted of illegally keeping guns, won the Mokama seat. It was the first major poll since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP to join hands with the RJD and the Congress to form a government.
Details
BJP retains seat in Odisha
The battle was fierce between Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Abanti Das and the BJP's Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajana in the Dhamnagar bypoll in Odisha. The BJP won it last time but MLA Bishnu Sethi's death vacated it. It fielded his son this time. BJP's Sthitaprajana finaaly emerged winner by defeating his rival Das in a closely fought contest.
Uttar Pradesh
BJP clinches Gola Gorkarannath seat
The BJP has been successful in retaining UP's Gola Gokarannath seat, which fell vacant after the recent death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri in September this year. With the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party did not contest the bypolls here, the fight was between the BJP's Aman Giri and former Gola Gokarannath MLA and the Samajwadi Party candidate Vinay Tiwari.
Numbers
Highest voter turnout was recorded in Telangana
During the recently concluded Assembly bypolls across six states, Telangana's Munugode constituency reported the highest voter turnout, according to the Election Commission of India trends. As per reports, 52.47% was recorded in Mokama in Bihar, while 48.35% voter turnout was reported in the Gopalganj constituency. Meanwhile, Telangana's Munugode witnessed the highest voter turnout with 77.55%. Haryana's Adampur constituency recorded a 75.25% voter turnout.