The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), continuing with its victory streak, on Thursday won 5 out of 10 assembly by-elections across eight states, including Delhi. Congress also had a reason to smile as they retained two seats in Karnataka, and another in Madhya Pradesh.
The Trinamool Congress won in West Bengal, and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) emerged victorious in Jharkhand.
As the results for the Sunday assembly bypolls, held in eight states were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, congratulated his party workers.
AAP Candidate Loses Deposit
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, where it won 67 out of 70 assembly seats in the 2015 elections, suffered a crushing defeat in Rajouri Garden assembly constituency, and managed a distant third after the BJP and the Congress.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa (BJP) defeated Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress by a margin of nearly 14,000 votes, according to the Election Commission.
Sirsa garnered 40,602 votes, Chandela 25,950 and the AAP's Harjeet Singh 10,243 out of a total 78,091 votes polled. As the AAP candidate wasn’t able to secure the minimum number of votes required, he lost his deposit. Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the voters were angry that ex-AAP MLA Jarnail Singh left the seat to contest in Punjab Assembly polls, which led to the party's poor show.
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas tweeted after the result:
Congress Retains Its Strongholds
The Congress, however, retained seats of Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly constituencies in Karnataka, and Ater assembly seat in Ater, Madhya Pradesh defeating BJP candidates in all three places.
After the win, Karnataka Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah asserted that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Karnataka were not tampered with. He further added that the Congress leaders are making statements on EVM tampering because there is a scope for tampering with the machine.
In Ater, the Congress' Hemant Katare defeated BJP's Arvind Singh Bhadoria by a little over 800 votes to retain the seat.
BJP Wins in Rajasthan, Assam and Himachal Pradesh
In Himachal Pradesh, the opposition BJP retained its stronghold Bhoranj assembly seat for the seventh consecutive term. Anil Dhiman defeated Promila Devi of the Congress by a margin of 8,290 votes.
The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh won from Bandhavgarh. The poll panel said BJP's Shivnarayan Singh defeated Savitri Singh of the Congress by 25,476 votes in Bandhavgarh.
In Assam, the BJP retained the Dhemaji assembly seat with Ranoj Pegu, defeating Babul Sonowal of the Congress by a margin of over 9,000 votes. Pegu polled 75,217 votes, Sonowal 65,932 votes, and Jadu Hazarika of the CPI-M 4,944 votes out of the total 148,658 polled.
TMC, JMM Strengthen Their Regional Bastions
In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress triumphed in the Kanthi Dakshin assembly constituency, saying it was a reaffirmation of the people's faith in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's developmental agenda. Chandrima Bhattacharya defeated Sourindra Mohan Jana of the BJP by a margin of 42,526 votes.
The BJP, however, said it was "happy" with the outcome, reflecting that it was growing in popularity in the state.
In Jharkhand's Littipara, Simon Marandi of the JMM defeated Hemlal Murmu of the BJP by 12,900 votes.
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