In a major electoral reversal for the BJP ahead of next year's general elections, the saffron party failed to put its best foot forward in 10 Assembly constituencies spread across nine states, where bye-elections were held on Monday. The BJP, which has been on a winning spree in the assembly elections, has little to be happy about this time around as it won just one seat in Uttarakhand. While Congress bagged three (in Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Punjab's Shahkot), others secured six seats. The JMM got two in Jharkhand, while CPI(M), SP, RJD and Trinamool one each in Kerala, UP, Bihar and West Bengal, respectively. The BJP, which suffered a major setback in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll, also endured the ignominy of losing the Noorpur Assembly seat to the Samajwadi Party. In Noorpur, Samajwadi candidate Naimul Hassan defeated BJP rival Avani Singh by over 6,200 votes. The bye-election results, meanwhile, brought some cheer within the Congress camp as the grand old party wrested the Shahkot assembly seat from the Shiromani Akali Dal. In Shahkot, which is considered to be the SAD's borough, Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi trounced the SAD nominee Naib Singh Kohar with a margin of 38,801 votes. With the victory, the Congress' strength in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha will reach 78, a two-third majority in the House. READ | Bypoll Results 2018: BJP set to lose crucial Kairana, ally JDU faces defeat in Bihar In Meghalaya, the opposition Congress became the single largest party after its candidate Miani D Shira won the bye-election from Ampati Assembly seat, vacated by her father Mukul Sangma early this year. "INC candidate Miani D Shira won by 3191 votes. She secured 14,259 votes against a total of 11,069 votes polled by NPP candidate Clement G Momin," Chief Electoral Officer F R Kharkongor was quoted as saying by PTI. The seat fell vacant after Shira's father and former chief minister Mukul Sangma, who won from two seats in the last Assembly elections, vacated the seat. With the win, the Congress has 21 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly, one MLA more than the NPP, which is leading the coalition government with the support of the regional parties and the BJP. ALSO READ | When it comes to bypolls, 2018 has been BJP’s worst year In Bihar, the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) suffered a big jolt as the RJD wrested the Jokihat assembly seat from the rival JD(U) by a margin of 41,000 votes. RJD candidate Shahnawaz Alam defeated Murshid Alam of the JD (U), Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Baiju Nath Kumar said. The results of the bypoll, considered to be a prestige battle for the former allies, has come as a jolt to CM Kumar's JD(U), which had previously registered three consecutive wins at Jokihat. The Jokihat assembly seat was left vacant after the sitting JD (U) lawmaker quit the party and joined the RJD following Nitish Kumar's decision to go with the BJP last year. Kerala's ruling CPI (M)-led LDF consolidated its position after its candidate Saji Cheriyan won the Chengannur Assembly bypoll by a huge margin of 20,956 votes over his nearest Congress rival. According to the Chief Electoral Office, Cheriyan polled 67,303 votes while the Congress-led UDF candidate D Vijaykumar got 46,347 votes and BJP's P S Sreedharan Pillai came third with 35,270 votes. The victory margin of Cheriyan this time was more impressive than in 2016, when the LDF had won by a margin of only 7,983 votes. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress secured the Maheshtala assembly seat, beating BJP's Sujit Kumar Ghosh by 62,827 votes. The bypoll was held following the death of Trinamool Congress MLA Kasturi Das. In a setback to the ruling BJP, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was supported by Congress and other opposition parties, retained both Silli and Gomia assembly seats in the bye-election. In Gomia, JMM candidate Babita Devi, who bagged 60,551 votes, defeated AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union) nominee Lambodar Mahto by 1,344 votes while the BJP's Madhavlal Singh stood third with 42,037 votes. In Silli, JMM's Seema Mahto defeated AJSU chief and former state Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto by 13,508 votes. Both the seats were with the JMM. Karnataka Assembly seat Getting a leg up in Karnataka, the Congress won the Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly seat in Karnataka by a margin of over 25,400 votes. This is the first election since the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy came to power. While assembly elections across the state were held on May 12, polling in Rajarajeshwari Nagar was deferred to May 28 by the Election Commission after the voter ID controversy erupted and also on grounds of electoral malpractices.
