A turnout of 50 per cent to 80 per cent was recorded during voting in three Lok Sabha and 29 Assembly constituencies that went for by-elections. The assembly by-elections were held in 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 in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana.
Out of the 29 Assembly seats, the BJP held power in six, the Congress had nine, while the rest were with regional parties. The three Lok Sabha seats --Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh-- had to go to bypolls after their sitting members died.
The results of the electoral battle, that witnessed close fights between several political heavyweights, will decide the fate of prominent candidates like INLD leader Abhay Chautala, who quit the Haryana assembly in protest against the three new central agri laws, Congress' Pratibha Singh, wife of late chief minister Virbhadra Singh, former national footballer Eugeneson Lyngdoh and ex-minister from Telangana Eatala Rajender.
In Haryana, 80 per cent voting was reported in the bypolls to the Ellenabad Assembly constituency, necessitated by the resignation of INLD leader Abhay Chautala as MLA.
Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, whose BJP MP Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan had died, saw a turnout of 63.88 per cent, while an around 64.60 per cent voting was recorded in the three Assembly seats.
In Assam, 69.60 per cent turnout was recorded in five assembly constituencies, namely Gossaigaon, Bhabanipur, Tamulpur, Mariani and Thowra seats till 5 pm.
A higher percentage of votes -- nearly 71 per cent -- were polled till 5 pm in West Bengal’s four assembly constituencies.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has retained its Lok Sabha seat in Khandwa, the PTI reported. With this, the BJP has won in three of the four seats in Madhya Pradesh. It won Prithvipur with a margin of 15,678 votes and Jobat with 6,104.
Meanwhile, Congress won in Raigaon, a traditional BJP seat, after 31 years.
Taking to Twitter, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala stated that BJP has lost at most places in direct contest with the Congress, including Rajasthan, Himachal, Karnataka and Maharashtra. He added that BJP has lost two of the three Lok Sabha seats in the fray -- Himachal's Mandi and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
"Modi ji, Shed arrogance! Repeal 3 Black Laws! Stop Petrol-Diesel-Gas Loot!" he tweeted, adding, "disdain for people's pain is harmful."
monthly limit of free stories.
with an Express account.
While the Ellenabad bypoll saw INLD’s Abhay Chautala return as MLA, the results, coming amid the farmers’ agitation, have thrown up some surprises, with the BJP-JJP alliance faring better than what many had predicted and the Congress dipping to a distant third.
We explain the reasons why INLD’s Chautala defeated them both.
Abhay Chautala’s resignation, farmers’ support to him
It was on January 27 this year that INLD’s lone MLA in Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Abhay Chautala, resigned, “listening to the appeal made by the farmers”, who had asked all MLAs of Haryana to resign if they were their “genuine well-wishers”. This move made a significant impact in the largely rural constituency, which is already considered a stronghold of the Chautala clan. Various SKM leaders campaigned in the constituency, but only asked the farmers to boycott the BJP-JJP nominee, not seeking votes for Abhay directly.
Rural areas dominate the constituency
Ellenabad constituency has a total of 190 polling stations, of which 166 are in rural areas and 24 in urban areas. Read more
Congress has won Maharashtra's Deglur, a reserved Schedule Caste seat, by a margin of 41,933 votes. INC's Antapurkar Jitesh Raosaheb secured 1,08,840 votes, while BJP's Sabne Subhash Pirajirao got 66,907.
Following his party's win in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, 'Every victory for the Congress is a victory of our party worker. Keep fighting hate. No fear!'
His party has also reclaimed Raigaon, a traditional BJP seat in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra's Deglur and Karnataka's Hanagal.
The BJP wrested the Huzurabad Assembly seat from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with BJP’s Eatela Rajender defeating the TRS candidate with an impressive margin of 24,068. Rajender secured 1,06,780 votes against his TRS rival G Srinivas Yadav, who secured 82,712 votes. Whereas, the Congress was left far behind with just 3,012 votes.
A win and a loss in Karnataka byelection might not have affected the prospects of BJP but it has put Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s leadership in question as the party has faced an embarrassing defeat in his home district Haveri.
A win for BJP in Hanagal was crucial for Bommai to emerge as the tallest leader in Karnataka, especially after BS Yediyurappa had vacated the chief minister’s chair.
This was also the first election BJP fought with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as its face. Bommai, along with at least 20 BJP ministers and MLAs, camped in Hanagal for several days and campaigned which clearly showed that a win there was crucial for the chief minister. Read more
The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Eatala Rajender had secured a total of 1,01,732 votes in the second-last round of counting in the Huzurabad constituency. He currently has a lead of 22,735 votes over TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav, who has secured 78,997 votes so far, according the EC's website.
The ruling Janata Dal (United) has won both the assembly seats in Bihar. JD(U)'s Aman Bhushan Hajari won Kusheshwar Asthan over RJD's Ganesh Bharti by a margin of 12,695.
In Tarapur, Rajeev Kumar Singh won over RJD's Arun Kumar by a margin of 3,852 votes.
In the past one month, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has mentioned it more than once that he is confident of the Congress’s return to power in the 2023 Assembly elections.
In a state where, every five years the incumbent government has been consistently voted out in the last two decades, Gehlot’s statement does sound surprising. In fact, at the end of his previous term as the Chief Minister in 2013, the Congress was decimated to 21 seats in the state Assembly.
One of the reasons behind Gehlot’s pitch for a second-term is the performance of the Congress in Assembly by-elections in the past two years, wherein it has repeatedly outperformed the opposition BJP. This is significantly different from what was the case in bye-elections held between 2014 and 2018, when the Congress, then in opposition, had won the majority of the bye-elections. Read more
The results of Madhya Pradesh bypolls are all set to strengthen the ruling BJP in the state, with the saffron party having won two seats and leading on one other, among the four that saw voting. The biggest victory for the BJP is in Jobat in Alirajpur district, a reserved Schedule Tribe seat that the saffron party has wrestled from Congress.
Among the three other seats, including two Assembly seats of Prithvipur in Niwari, Raigaon in Satna and one Parliamentary seat of Khandwa, the saffron party has won in Prithvipur and is leading in Khandwa. The traditional BJP seat of Raigaon went to the Congress this time. Kaplana Verma won with a margin of 12,096 votes, securing the seat for the Congress after 31 years. Read more.
Invigorated by the victory in the bypolls to all three Assembly segments and the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the opposition Congress on Tuesday demanded Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's resignation while the BJP said it will introspect the causes of its defeat.
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore sought the resignation of CM Jai Ram Thakur on moral grounds. "Thakur even failed to retain the BJP's seat in his home district Mandi," Rathore underscored. He described the bypolls as "semifinal" and exuded confidence that the Congress would win the Assembly elections scheduled for December next year.
On the other hand, CM Thakur alleged that some BJP workers operated against the party candidates. "Action will be taken against them," he said. (PTI)
UPPL’s Jolen Daimary has won the Tamulpur assembly seat by securing 86,678 votes. He won by a margin of 57,059 votes, defeating Ganesh Kachary, an independent candidate.
With this, all five seats in Assam have been won by BJP and it’s ally UPPL. The BJP has won Thowra, Bhabanipur and Mariani seats in Assam, while UPPL claimed victory in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur.
The electoral battle had revolved around the issue of price rise, with Congress' Pratibha Singh also invoking the memory of her husband, the popular former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who passed away this summer.
Here are the factors that worked in favour of Pratibha Singh:
A SYMPATHY VOTE: Singh, 65, who had earlier entered Lok Sabha following the election of 2004 and a parliamentary byelection in 2013, had returned to the voters of Mandi seeking their support in the name of “Raja Saheb” Virbhadra Singh, a six-time, 21-year Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, five-time member of Lok Sabha, and a former minister in the Government of India. Virbhadra 87, died of post-Covid complications in July, and the vote for his wife was to a significant extent the “shradhanjali” of his supporters for him.
INFLATION: The issue of inflation played out in a big way during the campaign period with electors venting their anger over rising prices of fuel and essential commodities. In a state where everything has to be transported by road, the prices of diesel which been going up on a daily basis is impacting the budgets of the common man. Read more
The National People's Party (NPP) wrested Rajabala and Mawryngkneng seats from the Congress, while the United Democratic Party, a partner in the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government, emerged victorious in Mawphlang, Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor said.
Congress candidate Preeti Shaktawat has won the Vallabhnagar Assembly seat by a margin of 20,606 votes. The party was earlier declared to have won the Dhariawad assembly seat with 18,725 votes.
Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Tuesday said the results of the Assembly bypolls have indicated that his party's government in the state is doing a "good job" and will return to power in the 2023 elections. "This is a direct message that there is no anti-government wave and its popularity has increased. Our government is doing a good job and the Congress will form government in Rajasthan again in 2023," Dotasra said.
The Congress has bagged the Dhariwad Assembly seat in the state while it is leading in Vallabhnagar.
On the other hand, the BJP accepted defeat in the bypolls, with the party's state chief Satish Poonia saying it was "circumstantial" and depended on "local equations". (PTI)
Congress's Jitesh Antapurkar is close to comfortably bagging the keenly faught Deglur assembly bypoll, leading by 39,400 votes over BJP's Subhash Sabane at the end of Round 27.
The bypoll was nessesitated by his father Raosaheb Antapurkar's death.
The Congress party has won the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh. With this, the party has swept the bypolls, having won all three Assembly seats in the state as well.
Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar, the wife of former independent MP late Mohan Delkar, won the by-election to the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabh seat.
MP Sanjay Raut hailed the victory as, "First step outside Maharashtra, giant leap towards Delhi via Dadra Nagar Haveli."
Congress has won all three Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh, while it maintains its lead in Mandi Lok Sabha seat.
In Telangana's Huzurabad, after 15 of total 22 rounds of counting, BJP candidate Eatala Rajender maintained a strong lead of 11,583 votes over TRS candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav. BJP has polled 63,079 votes compared to 53,645 votes polled by TRS.
Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh's Badvel, the ruling YSR Congress Party comfortably retained the seat. YSRCP candidate Dr D Sudha polled over 1,12,211 votes—over 77 per cent of the total votes, while BJP’s P Suresh got 21,678 votes and Congress got less than 700 votes
Udayan Guha has won the Dinhata seat, previously held by the BJP, by a margin of 1,63,005 votes. Similarly, candidate Subrata Mondal clinched the Gosaba assembly seat by a massive margin of 1,43,051 votes. TMC also won in the Khardah and Santipur assembly segments by a margin of 93,832 and 64,675 votes, respectively.
The results of the bypolls in Karnataka are in. BJP's Bhusanur Ramesh Balappa has won in the Sindagi Constituency against Ashok Malappa Managuli of Congress by a margin of 31,185 votes. Chief Electoral Office of Karnataka said Bhusanu Ramesh secured 93,380 votes and Ashok Managuli secured 62,292 votes.
Meanwhile, Congress candidate Srinivas Mane won in the Hanagal constituency by a margin of 7,426 votes against Shivaraj Sajjanar of BJP. Srinivas Mane secured 87,300 votes and Shivaraj Sajjanar bagged 79,874 votes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the Thowra, Bhabanipur, Mariani seats in Assam, while its ally UPPL claimed victory in Gossaigaon.
Congress turncoat Sushanta Borgohain has won the Thowra seat securing 54,956 votes. His beat his nearest candidate, Dhaijya Konwar, from Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal, by 30,506 votes. BJP’s Rupjyoti Kurmi won in Mariani by a margin of 40104 votes over Congress’s Luhit Konwar. Kurmi, too, is a Congress turncoat. BJP’s Phanidhar Talukdar has won in Bhabanipur LAC by a margin of 25641 votes over Congress’s Sailendra Nath Das.
Meanwhile, UPPL’s Jiron Basumatary won in the Gossaigaon seat (part of the Bodo Territorial Region) by a margin of 28252 votes over Congress’s Jowel Tudu. The BJP and its ally retain their lead in the fifth seat, Tamulpur, as well.
The Congress party has won in three assembly seats - Fatehpur, Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai. It continues to lead in the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, according to PTI.
The BJP has won the Jobat, a reserved ST seat, in Madhya Pradesh by a margin of 6,080 votes. After 30 rounds of counting, Congress' Mahesh Patel garnered 62,672 votes, while BJP's Sulochna Rawat got 68,752 votes.
The Jobat seat is important for BJP which is focussed on the tribal voters in the state. BJP's candidate, Rawat had defected from Congress to join BJP after she was denied a ticket by the Congress. Within hours after joining BJP, Rawat was declared BJP's Jobat candidate.
In Rajasthan, Congress won the Dhariawad assembly seat with 18,725 votes. Here, BJP is third after INC and an Independent. In Vallabhnagar assembly constituency, Congress is leading with a margin of 18,249 votes Here, BJP is fourth after INC, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and an Independent.
JD(U)'s Aman Bhushan Hazari, the death of whose father had necessitated the bypolls in the Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly seat, polled 58,882 votes, winning over RJD candidate Ganesh Bharti with a margin of over 12,000 votes.
Meanwhile, in Tarapur, where the bypoll was necessitated by the death of Mewa Lal Chaudhary, JD(U) candidate Rajiv Kumar Singh is trailing behind RJD's Arun Kumar Sah by a slender margin of less than 2,000 votes.
In the Dinhata assembly seat in Coochbehar, previously held by the BJP, TMC's Udayan Guha secured votes 1,14,086 votes, whereas BJP's Palash Rana, the nearest rival, garnered mere 20,254 votes.
TMC also retained the Khardah assembly segment by winning the seat by an impressive margin of 93,832 votes. Similarly, TMC candidate Subrata Mondal won the Gosaba assembly by-poll by a massive margin of 1,43,051 votes.
INLD's Abhay Chautala has won the Ellenabad bypolls by a margin of over 6,500 votes.
BJP's cadnidate Eatala Rajender has extended his lead over TRS' Gellu Srinivas Yadav to 5,631 votes at the end of round 10 of counting in the Huzurabad bypolls.
So far, with 12 more rounds to go, BJP has polled 44,647 votes as against 39,016 votes polled by TRS.
After the 15th round of counting, INLD's Abhay Chautala is leading with 6,573 votes in Haryana's Ellenabad bypolls. He currently accounts for 65,430 votes, while the BJP-JJP candidate Gobind Kanda has 58,857 votes. Meanwhile, Congress' Pawan Beniwal has 20,682 votes, so far.
Meghalaya's ruling party NPP on Tuesday won Rajabala assembly constituency, as its candidate Md. Abdus Saleh defeated his nearest opponent Hashina Yashmin Mondal of the Congress by a margin of over 1,900 votes, Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor said. The National People's Party nominee secured 11,823 votes while Mondal got 9,897, he said. United Democratic Party's Ashahel D Shira secured the third position with 7,247 votes, the CEO said.
The ruling BJP and its ally are leading by big margins in all the five Assam Assembly constituencies — Gossaigaon, Tamulpur, Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra — that went to bypolls on October 30.
According to the latest counting trends put on the Election Commission of India (ECI) website, BJP candidates Phanidhar Talukdar, Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain are leading in Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra seats, respectively. While Borgohain and Kurmi are Congress turncoats, Talukdar had earlier won from the Bhabanipur seat on an AIUDF ticket in the April assembly elections.
BJP ally UPPL’s candidates Jiron Basumatary and Jolen Daimary are leading in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur seats, respectively. These fell vacant after the deaths of the sitting MLAs.
With BJP and ally UPPL set to win all five seats in Assam, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said it was an endorsement of people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi. He tweeted: “In Assam, BJP and allies are all set to register an emphatic win on all 5 constituencies in the bye-polls by huge margins. This is a loud endorsement of people’s faith in the visionary leadership of Hon PM Sri @narendramodi.
Grateful to Sri @AmitShah and @JPNadda for your guidance.”
After assuming office in May, the bypolls have been Sarma’s first electoral test as the Chief Minister.
After 12 rounds of counting, Abhay Chautala of INLD is up by nearly 4,000 votes. He has bagged 49,827 votes, while BJP-JJP's Gobind Kanda has 45,866 votes and Congress's Pawan Beniwal has 17,004. This election is crucial for Chautala as Ellenabad was the lone seat his party had won in the last election to the Vidhan Sabha.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated her party candidates after their victory. "My heartiest congratulations to all the four winning candidates! This victory is people's victory, as it shows how Bengal will always choose development and unity over propaganda and hate politics. With people's blessings, we promise to continue taking Bengal to greater heights!" Banerjee said in a tweet.
Almost midway through counting for Tarapur (Munger) and Kusheshwar Sthan (Darbhanga), JD(U) and RJD are leading in one seat each.
In Kusheshwar Sthan, JD(U) candidate Amar Hazari is leading with over 7,000 votes against RJD candidate Ganesh Bharti after 14 rounds of counting. While Hazari has so far got over 36,000 votes, Bharti has managed over 29,000 votes in the bipolar fight. Congress candidate Atirek Ram, whose father Ashok Ram was a runner-up in the 2020 polls, is far behind in the contest.
In Tarapur, RJD candidate Arun Kumar Sah is leading with over 4,000 votes against JD(U)’s Rajiv Kumar Singh after eight rounds of polling. JD(U), which has won the seat three consecutive times, hopes to retain it with over a dozen more rounds of counting to go.
Abhay Chautala's lead over BJP-JJP candidate Gobind Kanda and Congress's Pawan Beniwal is shrinking. After 10 rounds of counting - there are 16 rounds in total - Chautala's lead falls to 2,985 votes. He has garnered 40,633 votes, against Kanda's 37,648 and Beniwal's 14,951.
Congress candidates are leading in both the Assembly bypoll seats in Rajasthan -- Vallabhnagar and Dhariawa -- with the BJP a distant fourth in the former.
By 12:30 pm on Tuesday, In Vallabhnagar, Congress’ Preeti Shaktawat gained a lead of 6,458 votes over Udailal Dangi, the BJP rebel who was fielded by Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP). The third was independent Randhir Singh Bhinder while BJP’s Himmat Singh Jhala stood fourth.
In Dhariawad, Congress’ Nagraj was leading BJP’s Khet Singh by 15,960 votes.
Before the polls, Vallabhnagar was held by Congress and Dhariawad by BJP. A win in both seats will certainly ease the pressure on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who has been delaying a cabinet expansion for over a year now. His government has been under attack by leaders from the Sachin Pilot faction.
Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar, the wife of former independent MP late Mohan Delkar, took a decisive lead of over 15,000 votes for the by-election to the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabh seat.
After the completion of 11 rounds of counting, Kalaben Delkar was leading by over 15,000 votes. She had so far received 44,723 votes, while her close rival, BJP candidate Mahesh Gavit, was trailing with 29,388 votes. Besides, Congress' Mahesh Dhodi got 1,947 votes so far, an Election Commission official said.
The TMC has won the bypoll in Cooch Behar district’s Dinhata and is leading with massive margins in the remaining three Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. Former TMC MLA Udayan Guha has won the Dinhata seat by a margin of 1,63,005 votes.
Udayan Guha called his win a "sweet victory." "We took this election as a challenge and we have stopped the communal force in Dinhata. Today it has been decided that Union minister Nisith Pramanik is just a paper tiger in Cooch Behar district. We have won the seat by a record margin within six months after losing it to the BJP," he said.
Abhay Chautala has widened his lead, and is now ahead by 8,180 votes. After 7/16 rounds of counting, here's where things stand:
Abhay Chautala (INLD) - 31,838
Gobind Kanda (BJP-JJP) - 23,658
Pawan Beniwal (Congress) - 13,092
MNF’s Laldawngliani defeated his nearest opponent, Laltlanmawia of Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) by a margin of 1,284. Congress’s Chalrosanga Ralte finished at third, and BJP’s K Laldinthara at fourth.
In Meghalaya’s Mawryngkneng and Rajabala seats, ruling National People’s Party (NPP) is leading by 1317 and 1618 votes, respectively. In Mawphlang, United Democratic Party (UDP) is leading by 3301 votes.
BJP candidate Eatala Rajender was leading over his nearest TRS rival Gellu Srinivas Yadav after three rounds of counting of votes in the Huzurabad assembly constituency bypoll in Telangana on Tuesday.
With the trends in favour of BJP, the party's state president Bandi Sanjay, while speaking to reporters, exuded confidence that Eatala Rajender was winning the bypoll with a thumping majority. "The results would be a fitting lesson to the arrogance and money power of TRS," he said, adding that the people have "lost faith" in Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
In Andhra Pradesh's Badvel, the YSR Congress Party is leading by a massive margin of nearly 90,000 votes. In the 11 rounds counted so far, the BJP and Congress are yet to open their account.
Congress candidates Nagraj Meena and Preeti Shaktawat are leading in Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar Assembly constituencies of Rajasthan on Tuesday, according to trends available for the bypolls. Nagraj Meena is leading by a margin of 7,528 votes over BJP candidate Khet Singh Meena in Dhariawad. In Vallabhnagar, Shaktawat is ahead of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) candidate Udailal Dangi by a margin of 4037 votes. Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas expressed confidence that the Congress will win both the bypolls.
he Election Commission has reminded its poll officials that there is a ban on victory processions to prevent spread of coronavirus in states where counting is underway for Lok Sabha and assembly bypolls.
In a letter to the chief electoral officers of Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal and Dadra and Nagar Havelli and Daman and Diu where bypolls were held on October 30, the commission said that its instructions on banning victory processions, issued in April, would also apply on the latest set of bypolls.
Ramesh Bhusanur of BJP is leading by a margin of over 15,950 votes in Sindgi by securing 41,398 votes, while his Congress' Ashok Managuli has secured 25,448 votes, so far. In Hangal, Congress' Srinivas Mane is leading by a margin of over 1,498 votes, securing 27,244 so far, while his closest rival Shivaraj Sajjanar of BJP has secured 25,746 votes. JD(S) candidates Naziya Shakeel Ahmed Angadi from Sindgi and Niyaz Shaikh from Hangal are trailing in a distant third position.
Ruling MNF candidate K Laldawngliana was leading by 976 votes in the bypoll to the Tuirial seat in Mizoram. ZPM candidate Laltlangmawi was at the second spot. The bypoll to the seat in Kolasib district was being held after the death of sitting MLA Andrew H Thangliana of Zoram People's Movement (ZPM).
Abhay Chautala is leading by 6,031 votes after the 4th round of counting - there are a total of 16 rounds. Chautala has got 19,873 votes, while Gobind Kanda has 13,842 and Pawan Beniwal 11,424.
Initial trends from the counting of EVM votes suggest neck-and-neck competition between BJP and TRS. According to the ECI website, Eatala Rajender of BJP is leading with 358 votes at the end of round 2.
Huzurabad has been a TRS stronghold since 2004 and Rajender has represented the constituency for four terms between 2009 and 2021. The bye-election is seen as a battle between KCR, who wants to assert his supremacy, and Rajender, who wishes to save his political career.
The Trinamool Congress is currently leading in all four assembly seats where bypolls were held — Khardah, Santipur, Gosaba and Dinhata. The party workers have already begun celebrations outside a counting centre in Dinhata
The BJP was leading in the Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency and three other Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh.
In the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate Gyaneshwar Patil was leading by 14,365 votes over his Congress rival Rajnarayan Singh Purni, the official said. In the Raigaon Assembly seat (reserved for SC) in Satna district, BJP candidate Pratima Bagri was leading by 220 votes over Congress' Kalpana Verma. In the Prithvipur Assembly seat in Niwari district, BJP's Shishupal Singh Yadav was ahead of his Congress rival Nitendra Singh Rathore by 430 votes, while in Jobat (reserved for ST) seat of Alirajpur district, BJP's Sulochana Rawat was leading by 1,956 votes over Congress' Mahesh Patel, as per the latest trends.
The Congress is leading in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi parliamentary seat and three assembly seats of Fatehpur, Arki and Jubbai-Kothkai, according to available trends for the bypolls.
In the Mandi parliamentary seat, late chief minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh of the Congress is leading with 1,316 votes over her nearest rival Kargil war hero Brigadier (retd) Khushal Thakur of the BJP. In Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly seat after second round of counting, Rohit Thakur (2,825) of the Congress is leading with 248 votes over his nearest rival Chetan Singh Bragta (2577), a rebel BJP candidate contesting as an independent candidate. BJP candidate Neelam Seraik has so far got only 302 votes.
In Fatehpur, Bhawani Singh Pathania of the Congress is leading with a thin margin of 47 votes over his nearest rival Baldev Thakur (1972) of BJP. In Arki, Congress candidate Sanjay (2510) is leading with 943 votes over BJP's Rattan Singh Pal (1567). (PTI)
The ruling BJP and its allies are leading in all the five assembly constituencies in Assam. BJP candidates Phanidhar Talukdar, Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain are leading in Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra seats respectively. BJP ally UPPL's candidates Jiron Basumatary and Jolen Daimary are leading in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur seats respectively.
After two rounds of counting, Abhay Chautala has garnered 6,915 votes, while Gobind Kanda, contesting for the BJP-JJP alliance, has got 4,615 votes. Congress' Pawan Beniwal is third with 4,174 votes. Read more, here
Congress’s Jitesh Antapurkar is leading by 2293 votes over BJP’s Subhash Sabane after two rounds of counting votes for Deglur Assembly Constituency in the Nanded district.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting Congress MLA Raosaheb Antapurkar due to Covid-19. His son Jitesh is contesting the seat with Maha Vikas Aghadi support against Sabane who quit Shiv Sena and entered BJP to contest the poll. The fight is being seen as a battle of reputation for MVA and BJP with both deploying senior leaders in the campaign.