By-elections were also declared in five states on Thursday, with multiple significant electoral contests.
While much of the focus on Thursday was on Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Odisha also produced bypolls results.
In UP, two assembly bypoll results —Rampur Sadar in Rampur and Khatauli— were declared and one Lok Sabha seat result —Mainpuri— was also declared.
Bypoll results were also declared in Kurhani seat in Bihar, Sardarshahar seat in Rajasthan, Padampur seat in Odisha, and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh.
The contests in Bihar and UP were of significance as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) entered into a face-off with arch-rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and emerged victorious.
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Uttar Pradesh
In UP, the BJP, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), and SP won an election each.
In Rampur Sadar seat, BJP's Akash Saxena defeated SP's Asim Raja. The victory is of significance as Rampur is the home turf of SP strongman Azam Khan and the BJP victory is being hailed as BJP breaching Azam's Rampur fortress.
In Khatauli seat, SP-ally RLD's Madan Bhaiya defeated BJP's Rajkumari Saini by a margin of over 22,000 votes. Saini is the wife of former BJP MLA Vikram Singh, whose disqualification from the state assembly following his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case necessitated the bypoll.
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In Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, SP's Dimple Yadav —wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav— defeated BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya by 2,88,461 votes. Considered as the SP's bastion, the seat was held by party founder and Dimple Yadav's father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav and got vacated after his death on October 10.
Bihar
The BJP emerged victorious in Bihar's Kurhani bypoll. BJP's Kedar Prasad Gupta defeated Manoj Singh Kushwaha of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) by 3,645 votes. In the bypoll, the two former-allies locked horns for the first time since their break-up four months ago.
The crucial Kurhani bypoll was a tough competition between the BJP and JD(U) and the two sides were neckp-to-neck until BJP's Gupta left Kushwaha of JD(U) behind. Altogether 13 candidates, five of them Independents, were in the fray, but the contest was primarily between Gupta and Kushwaha. Both are former MLAs.
Nearly 58 per cent of voters exercised their franchise on Monday in the by-poll to Kurhani where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and the BJP have locked horns for the first time since their break-up four months ago.
Odisha
Bijud Janta Dal's (BJD) Barsha Singh Bariha defeated BJP’s Pradip Purohit by a margin of 42,679 votes.
After the end of the 23rd round of counting, Bariha secured a total 1,20,807 votes, while Purohit bagged 78,128 votes, the Election Commission said.
Barsha is the daughter of late MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha whose death in October necessitated the by-poll.
Rajasthan
Congress' Anil Sharma defeated BJP's Ashok Kumar Pincha by a margin of 26,850 votes in Rajasthan's Sardarshahar assembly bypoll on Thursday, with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot terming it "people's seal on his government's good governance and public welfare schemes".
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This is the 10th time the Congress won the seat since Independence. The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of senior Congress leader and MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma.
Chhattisgarh
Congress candidate Savitri Mandavi won the bypoll by a margin of 21,171 votes against her nearest rival Brahmanand Netam of the BJP.
Mandavi polled 65,479 votes, while the BJP's Netam secured 44,308 votes.
A voter turnout of 71.74 per cent was recorded in the bypoll to this seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates and located in the Maoist-affected Kanker district. The byelection was necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MLA Manoj Singh Mandavi. The grad old party had fielded his wife.
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(With PTI inputs)
