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Congress sees 'trend' for BJP in assembly bypoll results as INDIA bloc takes big lead: ‘Began for us in 2014’
In the by-elections held across 13 assembly constituencies, the INDIA bloc parties have won six seats and are leading in four others.
As INDIA bloc parties were on course to win big in the assembly bypolls, Congress leader Pawan Khera on Saturday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was entering a phase of electoral decline similar to what the grand old party experienced after 2014.
"This is a trend which began with the Lok Sabha elections and is moving forward. BJP will continue losing all the upcoming elections," Khera told ANI.
He added, “This trend began for us in 2014 after which we lost many elections and now BJP will go through the same phase.”
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INDIA bloc parties won six assembly seats and were leading on four, while the BJP bagged one seat and was ahead on another as votes were counted on Saturday for the by-elections held earlier this week in 13 assembly constituencies, according to the trends on the EC website.
Of the three seats in Himachal Pradesh that went to the polls, Congress won two and BJP bagged one. The bypolls were necessitated on these seats after the three Independent legislators Hoshyar Singh (Dehra), Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) and K L Thakur (Nalagarh), who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls held on February 27, resigned from the state assembly on March 22 and joined the saffron fold the next day.
Congress was also leading in both assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand – Badrinath and Manglaur – that had voted in the by-elections.
Trinamool Congress bagged three assembly seats in West Bengal and is on course to win the fourth by taking a decisive lead after 14 rounds of counting.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) clinched the Jalandhar West seat in Punjab by defeating nearest rival and BJP nominee Sheetal Angural by a margin of 37,325 votes. The seat fell vacant after Angural resigned as the AAP legislator and joined the BJP in March.
In the Rupauli assembly constituency of Bihar, Independent candidate Shankar Singh was leading by over 8,000 votes in the final round of counting, while Bima Bharti, whose defection from JD(U) to RJD necessitated the bypoll, was pushed to the third place. Bima Bharti had fought the Lok Sabha election from Purnea on an RJD ticket but was not even in the race when votes were counted on June 4. Independent candidate Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav won from Purnea Lok Sabha defeating the nearest rival and JD(U) candidate Santosh Kumar by a margin of 23,847 votes. While Pappu Yadav polled 5,67,556 votes, Bima Bharti secured just 27,120 votes.
