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JD(U) retains 2 seats in Bihar; Congress sweeps Rajasthan
With the bypolls necessitated by the death of the two sitting JDU candidates, RJD leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav said, “We accept the people’s verdict. The sympathy factor worked at both the places.” An upbeat Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile said, “In democracy, people are the judge and people have given their verdict. I thank people for the verdict.”
The Janata Dal United retained both the Kusheshwar Sthan and Tarapur assembly seats in Bihar in the bypoll results on Tuesday in an election marked by the return of RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to Bihar after a four year hiatus, and a break in the RJD-Congress relationship. At Kusheshwar Sthan, JDU candidate Aman Bhushan Hazari beat the RJD’s Ganesh Bharti by a comfortable 12695 vote margin, with the Congress candidate Atirek Kumar in fourth place, polling just 5623 votes. In Tarapur, the results were much closer, with counting swaying this way and then the other, with the JDU candidate Rajeev Kumar Singh eventually emerging on top by 3821 votes, beating Arun Kumar of the RJD.
With the bypolls necessitated by the death of the two sitting JDU candidates, RJD leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav said, “We accept the people’s verdict. The sympathy factor worked at both the places.” An upbeat Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile said, “In democracy, people are the judge and people have given their verdict. I thank people for the verdict.”
In Huzurabad in Telangana’s Karimnagar district, there was also good news for the BJP with Eatala Rajender wresting the seat from the TRS, winning by a margin of 23,865 votes. Rajender secured 1,06,213 votes, while the TRS candidate polled 82,348 votes. Congress candidate Balmuri Venkat, president of state NSUI, ended up with just 2,767 votes, thereby losing his deposit. With the Rajender’s victory, the BJP’s tally in the 119-member Telangana state assembly went up to three.
The by-election is necessitated due to the resignation of Rajender, who was state health minister and quit the TRS and joined the BJP in June this year. He was earlier sacked from the state cabinet by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on May 2 on charges of land encroachment, prompting an election that was seen as almost a personal contest between Rajender and the Chief Minister.
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh’s Badvel constituency however, there was more humbling news for the BJP with the YSR Congress candidate Dasari Sudha beating Panathala Suresh of the BJP by a wide 90,533 vote margin.
In Rajasthan, there was better news for the Congress which won both the Vallabhnagar and Dhariawad seats, wresting the latter from the BJP. In Vallabhanagar, Preeti Shaktawat beat RLP candidate Udailal Dangi with a 20606 vote margin, with the BJP finishing fourth. In Dhariawad, Nagraj Meena of the Congress beat Independent Thawar Chand with a victory margin of 18725 votes, with the BJP in third. “Congratulations and best wishes to Preeti Shaktawat, and Nagaraj Meena, for their victory in the assembly by-elections. Gratitude to the voters of both the constituencies and congratulations to the workers and leaders of the Congress party,” Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said.
In Maharashtra’s Deglur, Congress’s Jitesh Antapurkar won the bypoll defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Subhash Sabne by more than 41,000 votes. The victory was considered to be important for the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in the backdrop of its emberassing defeat in the Pandharpur bypoll in which BJP had wrested the constituency from Nationalist Congress Party.
