Bypolls were held across six states – Telangana, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Bihar
The BJP increased its seat count on Sunday after votes for byelections recently held in seven assembly constituencies were tallied across six states. As soon as early patterns started to emerge, candidates for the governing BJP were in the lead in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Although the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the state’s ruling party, and the opposition BJP engaged in a close race, KCR’s party ultimately won the seat. While in Bihar, Kusum Devi of the BJP triumphed in Gopalganj, allowing the RJD to hold onto the Mokama seat. The first elections held after Team Uddhav Thackeray’s government fell earlier this year in Maharashtra, resulted in a victory.
Telangana
The incumbent TRS candidate Telangana Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy won the by-election for the Munugode assembly district. The closest BJP challenger, Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy was defeated by the TRS candidate. The BJP and TRS engaged in a sea-saw battle in the southern state.
The state experienced a heated debate between the two parties before the by-election results as well as a poaching scandal involving MLAs. The incumbent Congress MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy’s resignation from the party in August forced the need for a by-election.
Haryana
BJP candidate Bhavya Bishnoi, the grandson of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, succeeded in gaining leads as soon as the counting started in what was billed as a do-or-die prestige struggle in Haryana’s Adampur. For almost 50 years, the seat has served as a bastion for the Bhajan Lal familial dynasty.
While Jay Prakash of the Congress put up a valiant battle, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party had no real influence. And, Bhavya Bishnoi, who is under investigation for tax fraud is free on bond. He ultimately prevailed by 16,000 votes.
Uttar Pradesh
Akhilesh Yadav charged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with intimidating and threatening voters in the Gola Gokarannath constituency of Uttar Pradesh, prior to the election.
Following the passing of incumbent BJP MLA Arvind Giri on September 6. His Samajwadi Party ran former Gola MLA Vinay Tiwari for the seat. Aman Giri, the son of Arvind Giri, was put forward as his opponent by the BJP.
But as voting continued on Sunday, Giri kept a lead in the district and ultimately won the seat. Additionally, Aman Giri outperformed his father Arvind Giri’s margin of victory in elections, earlier this year.
Bihar
Neelam Devi of the RJD easily won the Mokama seat in Bihar, keeping her husband’s seat in what was the first election between the ruling Grand Alliance and the BJP, following Nitish Kumar’s switch. Sonam Devi of the BJP was her main rival.
“I knew I would win. I had previously stated that I was the only contestant. Just a formality, really. People won’t be seduced because Mokama is the land of Parshuram. People were served by Vidhayak ji (Anant Singh). They’re giving the result now,” the RJD leader was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
The other seat in the state where by-elections were held was Gopalganj. Mohan Prasad of the RJD was defeated by Kusum Devi of the BJP.
Maharashtra
The Mumbai by-elections in Andheri-East were also viewed merely as a formality. The Uddhav Thackeray government was overthrown, and these were the first elections held in Maharashtra. Rutuja Latke, a member of his party, won the seat that had been left open by the passing of her husband Ramesh Latke. According to party tradition, the BJP had earlier declared they would not run a candidate against her.
Naturally, Team Uddhav burst into jubilation after the victory.
Odisha
In the Dhamnagar assembly by-election, the BJP defeated the BJD by a margin of 9,881 votes. Suryabanshi Suraj of the BJP won 80,351 votes, while Abanti Das of the BJD received 70,470.
