Bypoll results: BJP wins Palghar, NCP gets Bhandara-Gondiya

BJP’s Rajendra Gavit won the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra and NCP-Congress candidate Madhukar Kukde emerged victorious in the parliamentary constituency of Bhandara-Gondiya,

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajendra Gavit won the Palghar Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra and Nationalist Congress Party-Congress candidate Madhukar Kukde emerged victorious in the parliamentary constituency of Bhandara-Gondiya, the results for which were announced on Thursday.

Voters standing in a queue outside a polling booth during the Lok Sabha by-election at Palghar in Maharashtra. (Pramod Thakur/HT FILE Photo)

These bypolls are being seen as a dry run before the 2019 general elections for the BJP and the opposition.

The bypoll in Palghar was necessitated after the death of sitting member of Parliament Chintaman Wanaga in Palghar, where the fight was multi-cornered with the BJP, Shiv Sena and local outfit Bahujan Vikas Aghadi in the fray.

There was a direct fight between the BJP and NCP in Bhandara-Gondiya, where the bypolls were held after Nana Patole resigned as the member of Parliament.

Both the seats were held by the BJP.

The Palghar battle became a matter of prestige for the BJP as its ally Shiv Sena challenged it by fielding the late Wanaga’s son Shrinivas. The Bhandara-Gondiya contest is a boost for for the Congress and NCP, who have come together after parting ways in the 2014 assembly elections.

The Election Commission dismissed the reports as “exaggerated” and clarified that 96 ballot units, 84 control units of EVMs and 1202 VVPATs had to be replaced.