In Madhya Pradesh 22 of the 28 seats fell vacant after Jyotiraditya Scindia's crossover in March. (File)
The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh is leading in 20 of the 28 Assembly constituencies for which byelections were held while the Congress is ahead in seven seats, as per the trends of counting on Tuesday, PTI reported. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is leading in Morena constituency. By afternoon, BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia had tweeted congratulating "the winners" of his party. He expressed confidence that the winning candidates will remain eager for public service and the development of their respective constituencies. The 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh fell vacant following Jyotiraditya Scindia's crossover in March, which triggered the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the return of the BJP. He will be expected to ensure the MLAs who resigned to support him are re-elected. Reacting to the leads, former Chief Minister and Congress leader, Kamal Nath, said, "Let the results come in fully. We will respect the mandate and thank the voters."
In Haryana's Baroda assembly seat, the Congress's Indu Raj Narwal defeated the BJP's Yogeshwar Dutt by 12300 votes. The BJP was leading in both Dumka and Bermo assembly seats in Jharkhand, according to early trends. The BJP's Lois Marandi was leading over his nearest rival Basant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) by over 7,938 votes in the Dumka seat. In the Bermo Assembly constituency, the BJP's Yogeshwar Mahto "Batul" was leading over his nearest rival Kumar Jaimangal (Anup Singh) of the Indian National Congress by 455 votes.
Of the seven Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats for which counting progressed on Tuesday, the BJP has managed to retain six, while Samajwadi Party (SP) had one. Commenting on the BJP's performance, Chief Minister Adityanath said, "This points that BJP will perform well in the upcoming elections, too."
After 13 rounds of counting, the BJP led the Dubbaka bypoll constituency in Telangana by about 4,000 votes. Though there were another 10 rounds of counting left, the party looked likely to win.
The BJP's N Munirathna won Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari Nagar assembly constituency by over 57,000 votes against his nearest rival, the Congress's Kusuma H, the late IAS officer DK Ravi's widow. The BJP was leading in Sira constituency of Tumakur district, too. In terms of numbers, the results of RR Nagar and Sira will make little difference to the stability of the Karnataka government, given the numbers of the BJP in the House.
The BJP is close to a clean sweep in the Gujarat bypolls, necessitated after several Congress MLAs resigned during the Rajya Sabha polls held in the state earlier. The party is leading in all eight seats for which voting took place on November 3. The results will be a setback for the newly appointed state Congress chief, Hardik Patel. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani described the party's imminent win as "trailer for the upcoming elections"; the state will hold full Assembly elections in 2022.
The ruling BJD candidates have established early leads over their nearest BJP rivals in both Balasore and Tirtol assembly constituencies in Odisha, where counting of votes polled in the byelections held last week was in progress on Tuesday. BJD's Bijay Shankar Das was leading over BJP's Rajkishore Behera by 1,078 votes in Tirtol seat in Jagatsinghpur district, according to PTI reports. In Balasore, BJD candidate Swarup Kumar Das was leading over his nearest BJP nominee Manas Kumar Dutta by 615 votes.
In Chhattisgarh's Marwahi seat, Congress contestant, Dr KK Dhruw, was leading by a margin of 3,664 votes over rival Dr Gambheer Singh of the BJP. The seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates, fell vacant after the death of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi.
Independent candidates were leading in Nagaland's bypolls to the Southern Angami I and Pungro Kiphire seats, early trends showed. Seyievilie Peter Zashumo was leading over his nearest rival Medo Yhokha of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) by 922 votes in Southern Angami I. In Pungro Kiphire, T Yangsea Sangtam was leading over his nearest rival and BJP nominee Lirimong Sangtam by 1,161 votes. The by-elections were held in these two seats following the death of sitting legislators Vikho-o Yhoshu and T Torechu, respectively.
The ruling BJP has won two of the five seats that went to polls in the state on November 7, ANI has reported. The party was also leading in two seats, while an Independent candidate led on another. The bypolls were necessitated after Congress MLAs of these four seats resigned from the assembly and joined the ruling BJP. The ruling BJP has contested in three seats and supported an independent candidate in Lilong, while the Congress has fielded its nominees in all the four constituencies.
