New Delhi

In the Assembly by-elections on seven seats across six states, BJP has emerged victorious on four seats and the regional parties – Telangana Rashtriya party (TRS), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Shiv Sena-UBT won one seat each in their respective strongholds.

Most striking part of the elections was the near absence of Congress party as a challenger. In fact it lost one seat to TRS in Telangana.

BIHAR: 

With a margin of 16,741 votes, Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Neelam Devi has successfully managed to register her victory at the Mokama assembly by-election in Bihar.

Mokama, a stronghold of Neelam Devi's husband Anant Singh since 2005, witnessed a major contest between BJP and RJD as it was the first election that took place after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar parted his ways with BJP to join hands with RJD and Congress to form a Grand Alliance government, here.

The disqualification of Anant Singh in Arms Act case had necessitated the by-elections here for which the BJP had fielded Sonam Devi as its candidate who garnered a total of 62,939 votes.

Notably, Neelam Devi won the seat with 79,646 votes.

Meanwhile, in the Gopalganj constituency of the state, RJD's Mohan Prasad Gupta was defeated by BJP candidate Kusum Devi with a margin of 1,794 votes despite taking an early lead and witnessing a neck-and-neck fight here.

Kusum Devi said that she will carry forward the incomplete development works here.

This was the first face-off between BJP and Mahagathbandhan ever since it was formed in Bihar as Nitish Kumar took oath for the eighth time here by joining hands with JDU, Conrgress, and other political parties in the state.

UTTAR PRADESH:

BJP candidate Aman Giri registered his victory in the Gola Gokarannath seat in Uttar Pradesh defeating Samajwadi Party's Vinay Tiwari.

The BJP was seeking to retain the Gola Gokarannath seat in Uttar Pradesh, which fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Arvind Giri in September.

ODISHA:

BJP candidate Suryabanshi Suraj won the Dhamnagar bypoll in Odisha by a margin of 9,881 votes.

According to Election Commission, with 80,351 votes, Suraj got 49.09 per cent of the total votes. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Abanti Das came second with 43.05 per cent of the votes.

Suryabanshi Suraj is the son of former BJP MLA Bishnu Sethi after whose death the Assembly seat fell vacant.

TELANGANA:

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) wrested Munugode Assembly seat from the Congress, winning the bitterly contested by-election against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in what proved to be a direct fight.

TRS candidate K. Prabhakar Reddy defeated his rival K. Rajagopal Reddy of BJP by a margin of 10,059 votes.

The Congress, which had won the seat in 2018, finished a distant third and forfeited the deposit.

Prabhakar Reddy polled 96,574 votes while Rajagopal Reddy secured 86,515 votes. Palvai Sravanthi of the Congress got only 22,449 votes.

HARYANA:

BJP's Bhavya Bishnoi, a grandson of late Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, on Sunday retained family stronghold Adampur, defeating former Union minister and a three-time MP Jai Prakash of the Congress by a margin of 15,714 votes in the assembly bypoll.

Bhajan Lal's family has won 16 elections in a row since 1968 from Adampur.

Bishnoi is the fifth member of the Bhajan Lal family to contest from the family bastion. Earlier, his grandfather Bhajan Lal, grandmother Jasma Devi, father Kuldeep Bishnoi and mother Renuka Bishnoi had represented the seat.

The bypoll was necessitated after Kuldeep Bishnoi resigned as lawmaker and switched loyalties from the Congress to the BJP in August.

MAHARASHTRA:

On anticipated lines, the Maha Vikas Aghadi's Shiv Sena-UBT candidate Rutuja R. Latke on Sunday won the Andheri East Assembly seat by-elections with a huge victory margin, officials said here.

The conquest is the first notched by the party after it got a new name Shiv Sena- Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and a new symbol of 'Flaming Torch' a couple of months ago, giving a huge psychological boost to the party which suffered a devastating split in June.

Latke secured 66,530 votes - 76.85 percent - of the total votes cast and is the winner of the seat earlier held by her husband, Ramesh Latke who died in May 2022.

In a stunner, some 12,806 voters - or 14.79 per cent - exercised the 'None Of The Above' (NOTA) option, nearly double the votes that all the candidates of two smaller parties and four independents secured.