Bypoll Results In 5 States: BJP Beats JD(U) In Bihar, Stages Upset In SP's Azam Khan's Home Turf

Even as all eyes are on Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh where the counting of votes for the Assembly Elections 2022  is going on, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha are also seeing electoral action where counting is underway for bypolls. 

Bypolls were held in three states on Monday. The Kurhani seat in Bihar went for bypolls 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. In Rajasthan, the Sardarshahar Assembly seat in Churu district is seeing a tough contest. Meanwhile, the Padampur assembly seat in Odisha’s Bargarh district also went to by-polls on Monday. Counting is underway in all three states on Thursday.

In Chhattisgarh, the Bhanupratappur seat is also seeing a by-election. In UP, counting is underway in two seats, Mainpuri and Khatauli.

Bihar

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious in Bihar's Kurhani bypoll. BJP's candidate Kedar Prasad Gupta defeated Manoj Singh Kushwaha of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) by 3,645 votes. 

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.

Uttar Pradesh

Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav has taken a comfortable lead in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, while nominees of the RLD and the SP are ahead in the Khatauli and the Rampur Sadar seats respectively, according to trends for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

While Yadav had taken a lead of over 2 lakh votes over her nearest rival BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya, RLD's Madan Bhaiya is leading by over 11,728 votes in Khatauli over BJP's Rajkumar Saini, the Election Commission website showed.

In Rampur, BJP's Akash Saxena reversed the morning's trends and defeated SP's Asim Raja. Notably, Rampur is the home turf of top SP leader Azam Khan.

The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after the death of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, had registered 54.01 per cent voting. The Khatauli assembly segment had recorded 56.46 per cent polling on December 5 while Rampur Sadar had seen a low 33 per cent voter turn out.

Bypoll in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated due to the disqualification of SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini following their conviction by separate courts in different matters.

The bypolls are witnessing a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are not in the fray.

Following defeats in Azamgarh and the Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll, considered the SP's bastions, the Mainpuri parliamentary and the Rampur and Khatauli assembly by-elections have become important for the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and his ally RLD.

Though the outcome of the bypolls' would not make much difference to the government at the Centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh as the BJP has a comfortable majority at both the places, a win would give psychological advantage to the winner in the run-up to the 2024 general election.

Odisha

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) extended its lead to 27,533 votes over the BJP after the 15th round of counting for the by-poll to the Padampur assembly seat in Odisha’s Bargarh district on Thursday, an official said.

Barsha Singh Bariha, the daughter of late MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, whose death necessitated the by-poll, secured 79,470 votes, which is 57.66  per cent, by the 15th round of counting. Purohit got 51,937 votes (37.68 per cent) followed by Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu who has bagged 2543 votes (1.84 %). 

The Padampur by-election saw a large turnout of 81.29 vote percent. Counting began at 8 AM at the RMC Yard near the Padampur sub-collector's office. There were 10 candidates in the fray including ruling BJD’s Barsha Singh Bariha, the daughter of late MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, whose death necessitated the by-poll. 

The BJP has fielded former legislator and party’s Krushak Morcha president Pradip Purohit as its candidate while three-time MLA Satya Bhusan Sahu is the Congress candidate.

Chief Electoral Officer S K Lohani said tight security arrangements are in place with deployment of around three companies of central paramilitary force in the inner cordon and state armed police in the outer area. 

Rajasthan

The Congress is leading in the Sardarshahar assembly seat in Rajasthan's Churu district, according to trends available for the bypoll on Thursday morning.

As per latest figures, Anil Kumar Sharma of Congress is leading by 26,852 votes over his rival Ashok Kumar of BJP.

Counting of votes for the bypoll to Sardarshahar Assembly seat in Rajasthan's Churu district began at 8 am on Thursday morning. The constituency recorded a voting percentage of 72.09 per cent on polling day on Monday.

A total of 2,89,843 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll necessitated by the demise of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who passed away on October 9 after prolonged illness.

Polling was held amid tight security arrangements across all 295 booths in the assembly segment.

The Congress fielded Sharma's son Anil Kumar while former MLA Ashok Kumar is the BJP candidate.

Eight other candidates are in the fray: Lalchand of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), Sanwarmal Meghwal of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Parmana Ram of the Indian People's Green Party, and Independent candidates Subhash Chandra, Vijay Pal Singh Sheoran, Umesh Sahu, Prem Singh, and Surendra Singh Rajpurohit.

In the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the Congress currently has 107 MLAs, BJP 71, RLP three, CPI(M) and Bhartiya Tribal Party two each, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) one, and 13 are Independents. 

Chhattisgarh

Congress candidate Savitri Mandavi was leading by a margin of more than 14,000 votes over her nearest rival in the Bhanupratappur Assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh, where counting was taken up on Thursday morning, officials said.

As per the early trends, Mandavi was leading by a margin of 14,418 votes against Brahmanand Netam of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an election official said.        

Mandavi has so far secured 30,196 votes, while Netam got 15,778 votes after nine rounds of counting, he said.

Akbar Ram Korram, who is contesting as an independent, is at the third position with 15,227 votes, he added.

A voter turnout of 71.74 per cent was recorded in the bypoll held on December 5 for the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates and located in the Maoist-affected Kanker district.

"The counting of votes began at 8 am at the Bhanu Pratap Dev Government PG College, Kanker where an adequate number of security personnel have been deployed," the poll official said.        

The entire counting process will be completed in 19 rounds.

The Sarva Adivasi Samaj, an umbrella body of tribal communities in Bastar, has fielded Korram, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Congress's Manoj Singh Mandavi had defeated BJP's Deo Lal Dugga by a margin of 26,693 to win the Bhanupratappur seat. 

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA and deputy speaker of Assembly Manoj Singh Mandavi on October 16. The Congress had fielded the late legislator's wife for the bypoll. 

(With inputs from PTI)