In Assembly by-elections, the BJP has retained the Manjalpur seat in Gujarat’s Vadodara district, with its candidate, Satendrabhai Patel, defeating Congress nominee Bhikhabhai Rabari by over thirty thousand votes.
According to the Election Commission, Mr Patel secured 55,481 votes, while Mr Rabari polled 24,851 votes after all 20 rounds of counting. The bypoll was necessitated after the seat fell vacant following the death of senior BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Yogesh Patel.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has wrested the Bankipur assembly constituency of Bihar, a BJP bastion which the party had never lost since 1995. Mr Kishor defeated his nearest BJP rival Neeraj Kumar by a margin of over nineteen thousand votes. The by-election was necessitated after BJP national President Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha.
At the end of the 32 rounds of counting, Mr Kishor garnered over 64 thousand votes while BJP’s Neeraj Kumar secured nearly 45 thousand votes. With over fourteen thousand votes, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Rekha Gupta secured third position.
The Congress has kept the Datia seat in Madhya Pradesh, with the party candidate Ghanshyam Singh defeating his nearest rival Ashutosh Tiwari of the BJP by over six thousand votes in bypoll.
At the end of all 15 rounds of counting, Mr Singh secured 66,757 votes, while Mr Tiwari polled 60,741 votes. Azad Samaj Party candidate Damodar Yadav secured third position by bagging 22,527 votes. The by election was necessitated after a Delhi court in April this year sentenced sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti to three years’ imprisonment in a cheating case, leading to the termination of his Assembly membership.
Voting for the bypolls to the three constituencies was held on the 30th of last month.
