BJP, Congress share spoils in LS, assembly bypolls

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress on Sunday were set to share the honours in the Lok Sabha and assembly bye-elections in 13 states.

The bypolls were held in four parliamentary constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and 12 assembly seats spread across 10 states.

Except for the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat and the Malappuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, where polling was held on April 6, bypolls in rest of the constituencies were conducted on April 17.

In the assembly bypolls, the BJP won or was leading in five seats, the Congress in four and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) in one seat each.

The results, however, would have no bearing on the immediate future of the respective governments.

In Tamil Nadu, Vijay Vasanth of the Congress was ahead of senior BJP leader and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan in the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Vasanth's father and Congress veteran H Vasantha Kumar last year due to Covid-19.

Maddila Gurumoorthy of the YSR Congress Party won the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh by beating Panabaka Lakshmi of the Telugu Desam by a huge margin of 2,71,592 votes.

BJP's Angadi Mangal Suresh pocketed the Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency with Satish Laxmanarao Jarkiholi of the Congress coming second. The victory margin was 5,240 votes.

Abdussamad Samadani of the Indian Union Muslim League won the Malappuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala defeating V P Sanu of the CPI-M by a margin of 1,14,615 votes.

The Congress won two of the three assembly seats in Rajasthan where bypolls were held with BJP emerging victorious in the third.

In the Sujangarh seat, Congress candidate Manoj Kumar beat BJP's Khemaram by 35,611 votes while Gayatri Trivedi defeated Ratanlal Jat of the BJP by a margin of 42,200 to emerge winner in Sahara. BJP's Deepti Kiran Maheshwari won the Rajsamand seat, defeating Tansukh Bohara of the Congress by 5,310 votes.

In Karnataka, while the BJP won the Basavakalyan assembly constituency, the Congress was able to retain the Maski seat.

In Basavakalyan, BJP's Sharanu Salagar defeated Congress candidate Mala B Narayan Rao by 20,629 votes while in Maski, Congress's Basanagauda Turvihal beat his nearest BJP rival Prathapagouda Patil by a margin of 30,606 votes.

BJP's Nimisha Suthar won the by-election to the Morva Hadaf (ST) assembly constituency in Gujarat by defeating her nearest Congress rival by 45,649 votes. Out of the total 93,179 votes polled, Suthar bagged 67,457 votes, while Congress's Suresh Katara got 21,808 votes.

In Madhya Pradesh, Ajay Kumar Tandon was leading from the Damoh seat.

In a setback to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra, BJP candidate Autade Samadhan Mahadev was ahead of his nearest NCP rival Bhalke Bhagirath Bharat in the Pandharpur-Mangalvedha assembly seat.

BJP's Mahesh Jeena beat his nearest rival Ganga Pancholi of the Congress in the by-election to the Salt assembly constituency in Uttarakhand by 4,697 votes.

The ruling Mizo National Front suffered a humiliating defeat in the Serchhip assembly seat as arch-rival ZPM's nominee Lalduhoma, whose disqualification necessitated the by-election, retained the seat by a margin of 2,950 votes.

Lalduhoma, who had defeated the then chief minister Lal Thanhawla of the Congress in the 2018 assembly polls, was disqualified by Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo last November under the anti-defection law, following complaints filed by 12 ruling party legislators.

The ruling TRS retained the Nagarjuna Sagar assembly segment in Telangana with its candidate Nomula Bhagath prevailing over Congress rival Kunduru Jana Reddy by 18,872 votes. The BJP candidate lost the deposit.

The JMM, which is in power in Jharkhand, won the Madhupur assembly seat with its candidate Hafizul Hussain defeating Ganga Narayan Singh of the BJP by 5,247 votes.

The by-election in Pipili assembly seat in Odisha was adjourned following the death of Congress candidate Ajit Mangaraj due to Covid-19 on April 14.

In Nagaland, only one candidate H Chuba Chang of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) had filed nomination for the bypoll to the Noksen assembly constituency and was elected unopposed, the Election Commission had said.