Bye-poll results: BJP wins 1 seat in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, 3 each in Gujarat, Manipur

The counting of votes for bye-elections to 58 Assembly constituencies across 11 states began at 8 am on Tuesday, PTI reported. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are among the states keenly watched.

Officials said the Election Commission of India has restricted the number of people who can be present in the counting halls and extensive measures have been taken to ensure physical distancing.

Madhya Pradesh

At 3.51 pm, trends showed the Bharatiya Janata Party has won one seat and leading in 19 of the total 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh, according to the Election Commission of India. BJP’s Narayan Singh Patel defeated Congress candidate Uttampal Singh in the Mandhata seat by 22,129 votes.

The Congress was ahead in seven constituencies, while the Bahujan Samaj Party established a lead on one seat.

The BJP was leading by more than 9,302 votes in Gwalior, which is a Jyotiraditya Scindia stronghold, while BSP’s Ramprakash Rajoriya is ahead in Morena by 8,583 votes. Saffron party’s Imarti Devi was also ahead of Congress’ Suresh Raje in Dabra. The Congress was leading in Sumaoli, Gohad, Bhander, Karera, Biaora and Agar constituencies.

Meanwhile, state minister Narottam Mishra took a dig Digvijaya Singh, saying that if the Congress leader was questioning the electronic machine machines, it meant that the BJP was winning the bye-polls, reported ANI. The Congress leader had on November 3, the day of the bye-polls, raised questions on the use of EVMs in India, saying the device was prone to hacking, according to PTI.

Counting is being held in 19 districts. A total of 355 candidates, including 12 ministers, are in the fray for bye-polls to 28 seats in the state.

The results of bye-polls to 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh will decide the fate of the seven-month-old Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. The numbers seem to be in favour of Chouhan as his government needs to win only nine seats in the 230-member Assembly to cross the halfway mark on its own, compared to 28 for the Congress.

The polls are also being projected as a prestige battle between former Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who resigned from the state Assembly on March 10 this year, leading to the fall of the Congress government and the BJP regaining power after a gap of 15 months. Elections were necessitated after 22 sitting MLAs and supporters of Scindia also switched to the saffron party. Sixteen of the 28 seats are being contested in the Gwalior and Chambal regions, believed to be a stronghold of the Scindias.

The state’s campaign was marred by caustic remarks, with Kamal Nath being censured by the Election Commission for using a derogatory term for BJP candidate Imarti Devi. The poll panel had issued a notice to Nath on October 21 for calling Devi an “item”. The electoral body also removed Nath as a “star campaigner” for repeated poll code violations, but the Supreme Court stayed this order.

Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP was ahead in six of the seven seats at 3.15 pm. Samajwadi Party’s Lucky Yadav took a lead of 6,327 votes in Malhani over Independent candidate Dhananjaya Singh. In the closely watched seat of Bangermau – where former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar vacated after being convicted of rape and murder – the saffron party’s candidate Shrikant Katiyar was ahead by over 16,837 votes. In 2017, Sengar was accused of raping a woman who was a minor at the time. A life term was imposed on him in December. The BJP was leading in Naugawan Sadat, Bulandshahr, Tundla, Bangermau, Ghatampur and Deoria.

The BJP had won all the seats, except for Malhani in Jaunpur district, in the 2017 Assembly polls.

On Monday, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had accused the BJP of rigging the elections in its favour. He, however, did not elaborate on the accusation, and said he would provide the details after the results are out on Tuesday.

Naugaon Sadat seat fell vacant after the death of state Cabinet minister and former cricketer Chetan Chauhan. Ghatampur bye-polls in Kanpur Nagar district was necessitated due to the death of state minister Kamal Rani Varun. Both ministers had died of the coronavirus.

The Tundla seat fell vacant after its MLA SP Singh Baghel was elected to Lok Sabha. The elections also marked the electoral debut of Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, who has fielded Mohammad Yameen in Bulandshahr to test the party’s electoral popularity.

The ruling Adityanath-led BJP government in the state faces an uphill battle with stiff competition from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party. The Congress has also attempted to regain foothold in this politically significant state.

The Congress, meanwhile, has targeted the BJP for crimes against Dalits in the state, with primary focus on the Hathras gangrape and murder. However, the party has fielded Brahmin candidates like Arti Bajpai in Bangarmau, Rakesh Mishra at Malhani, and Mukund Bhaskar Tripathi in Deoria. The BSP has stayed with its earlier formula of giving tickets to Muslim politicians in two seats of western Uttar Pradesh – Bulandshahr and Naugawan Sadat.

Gujarat

In Gujarat, the BJP has won three seats and was leading in the remaining five, as of 3.48 pm. Saffron party’s Jadeja Pradhyumansinh Mahipatsinh defeated Congress candidate Dr Shantilal Senghani to win the Abdasa constituency.

The BJP was on the verge of a clean sweep in the state with Chief Minister Vijay Rupani calling the predicted win a “trailer for the upcoming elections”, according to NDTV. The Assembly elections are due in the state next year.

The bye-polls in the state were necessitated after Congress MLAs resigned from the position. The legislators had quit days before the Rajya Sabha elections in June. Five of them joined the BJP soon after quitting, and the party has fielded them from the seats that they won in 2017.

The remaining three MLAs who switched sides are: JV Kakadiya (Dhari), Akshay Patel (Karjan) and Jitu Chaudhary (Kaprada).

Around 18.75 lakh voters chose from a total of 81 candidates for the eight seats of Abdasa in Kutch district, Karjan in Vadodara, Dang, Kaprada in Valsad, Morbi, Dhari in Amreli, Gadhada in Botad, and Limbdi in Surendranagar. The counting will be held at eight centres set up in these constituencies.

The bye-polls are also a chance for the BJP’s state unit chief CR Patil to realise his aim of winning all the 182 seats in the 2022 Assembly election.

Manipur

In Manipur, where five seats went to the bye-polls, BJP has won three seats in Wangoi, Singhat and Wangjing Tentha. Independent candidate Y. Antas Khan grabbed the Lilong constituency. The BJP was leading in Saitu by 4,297 votes. BJP’s Ginsuanhau Zou was declared the winner unopposed from the Singhat constituency last month.

Bye-polls to four seats, apart from Singhat, were held in Manipur’s Wangoi, Lilong, Wangjing Tentha, and Saitu were conducted on November 7, along with the third phase of the Bihar Assembly elections and the single Lok Sabha seat in Valmiki Nagar.

Around 91.54% of the total 1.35 lakh voters exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 11 candidates. The bye-polls were required after four Congress MLAs resigned to join the BJP.

The saffron party has fielded candidates in three seats and supported Khan in Lilong. The Opposition Congress contested in all the four seats.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, the BJP won one seat and was leading in another at 3.30 pm, as per the Election Commission of India. BJP’s Munirathna won the Rajarajeshwarinagar constituency by 58,113 votes. The saffron party was ahead in the Sirsa seat in Tumkur district.

The two constituencies are situated in south Karnataka, where the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress have a stronger hold. Sirsa was vacated after the death of JD(S) leader B Satyanarayana in August. The Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat became empty in July 2019 after Congress leader Munirathna Naidu quit to join the BJP.

Though the results will not affect the BS Yediyurappa government, the contest is being seen by many as a reflection on its performance, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.

Odisha

In Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal was ahead in both the seats – Balasore Sadar and Tirtol, at 3.30 pm.

The election to the seat of Balasore Sadore was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP leader Madan Mohan Dutta in June. The saffron party aims to regain the seat by fielding the deceased politician’s son Manas Kumar Dutta. The Tirtol seat was to be filled after the death of Biju Janata Dal MLA Bishnu Charan Das in July. Bijay Shankar Das, the party leader’s son, contested the elections from the seat.

The counting of votes for the Balasore bye-polls will be held at the campus of the district collector’s office, while in Tirtol it will be held at the SVM College premises in Jagatsinghpur, Chief Electoral Officer SK Lohani said.

State BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan claimed his party will win both the seats as the voters are “fed up with the ruling BJD”.

Jharkhand

In Jharkhand, the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha were leading in one seat each, with the former ahead in Bermo and the latter in Dumka. JMM’s Basant Soren is leading by 5,080 votes, after initially trailing behind BJP’s Lois Marandi in Dumka, as of 3.33 pm.

A total of 28 candidates contested for the two seats. In Dumka, where the bye-poll was required after Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced he was retaining the Barhait seat, his brother Basant Soren was trailing BJP’s Lois Marandi by over 2,000 votes at 1.50 pm.

The Bermo seat was vacated after Congress MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh died in May. The Congress has fielded Anup Singh against the BJP’s Yogeshwar Mahato.

Nagaland

For the two seats in Nagaland, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party’s Medo Yhokha was leading in Southern Angami-1 constituency by a thin margin of 598 votes, while T Yangseo Sangtam – an Independent – was ahead in Pungro Kiphire by 1,527, at 3.33 pm.

Deaths of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party politician Vikho-o Yhoshu and T Torechu of the Naga People’s Front were the reason the seats fell vacant.

Chhattisgarh

Congress’s KK Dhruw was leading against BJP’s Dr Gambheer Singh in Chhattisgarh’s Marwahi by nearly 20,000 votes at 3.36 pm. The seat fell vacant after the death of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in May. The seat has been in the Jogi family since 2003. His son Amit Jogi won it in 2013. The seat is a Scheduled Tribes-reserved constituency. The seat will see a tussle between the BJP and the Congress after the nomination papers of Amit Jogi and his wife Richa Jogi were rejected as the returning officer said their caste certificates were invalid.

Haryana

Congress’ Indu Raj was ahead by a margin of 9,231 votes in Haryana’s Baroda Assembly seat at 3.36 pm, which fell vacant after party MLA Shri Krishan Hooda died in April.

The seat witnessed a contest between 14 candidates. Olympic wrestler and BJP leader Yogeshwar Dutt was in the fray for the seat. The seat is a Congress bastion, and a constituency that the BJP has never been able to secure. Amid protests over the new farm bills, the ruling coalition of the BJP-Jannayak Janta Party will find it extremely tricky to realise their aspirations for this seat.

Telangana

In Telangana, BJP’s Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao was leading by 1,734 votes at 3.36 pm in the Dubbaka Assembly seat that needed filing after the death of Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader Ramalinga Reddy in August 2019.