It’s 4-3 to BJP in Nov 3 by-election; TRS, RJD, Shiv Sena(Uddhav) win one each

New Delhi: As votes were counted on Sunday across six states for bypolls held recently in seven assembly constituencies, the BJP gained in a majority of seats. In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, candidates of the ruling BJP were leading as soon as initial trends came in. Telangana saw a close contest between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the rival BJP, but eventually, the KCR’s party bagged the seat. While in Bihar, the RJD managed to retain the Mokama seat as the BJP’s Kusum Devi won in Gopalganj. Maharashtra saw a win for Team Uddhav Thackeray in the first elections held after the collapse of his government earlier this year. In what was pitched as a do-or-die prestige battle in Haryana’s Adampur, BJP candidate Bhavya Bishnoi – the grandson of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal – managed to gain leads as soon as the counting began. The constituency has been a stronghold of the Bhajan Lal clan dynasty for nearly five decades. While the Congress’s Jay Prakash offered a tough fight, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party failed to create any impact. Bhavya Bishnoi – facing tax probe – is out on bail. He finally won with a margin of 16,000 votes. Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the ruling TRS won the by-poll to Munugode assembly segment. The TRS candidate defeated his nearest BJP rival Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy. The southern state saw a sea-saw between the BJP and the TRS. Ahead of the bypolls results, the state saw an intense clash between the two parties and also over the MLAs poaching controversy. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy from the party in August. Ahead of voting in the Gola Gokarannath constituency of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav had accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of threatening and intimidating voters in the constituency. His Samajwadi Party had fielded the party’s former Gola MLA Vinay Tiwari from the seat which fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP MLA Arvind Giri on September 6. The BJP’s Aman Giri – Arvind Giri’s son – was fielded as his contender. However, Giri maintained a lead in the constituency as counting proceeded on Sunday and finally won the seat. Aman Giri also surpassed his father Arvind Giri’s victory margin of polls, held earlier this year. In what was the first electoral contest between the ruling Grand Alliance and the BJP after Nitish Kumar’s switch, Bihar saw a smooth win by the RJD’s Neelam Devi in the Mokama seat as she retained her husband’s seat. BJP’s Sonam Devi was her closest rival. “My victory was certain. I had already said there was nobody else in my contest. It was just a formality. Mokama is the land of Parshuram, people won’t get lured. Vidhayak ji (Anant Singh) served people. They’re giving the result now,” the RJD leader said. The Andheri-East bypolls in Mumbai were seen as a mere formality. For Maharashtra, this was the first polls held after the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government. His party’s candidate – Rutuja Latke – secured the seat, vacated following her husband Ramesh Latke’s death. The BJP had earlier said they would not field a candidate against her in line with the party’s tradition.Expectedly, Team Uddhav erupted into celebrations following the win. The BJP won the Dhamnagar assembly bypoll by 9,881 votes defeating the BJD. BJP’s Suryabanshi Suraj got 80,351 votes, while BJD’s Abanti Das received 70,470 votes.