Madhya Pradesh Bypolls: Jyotiraditya Scindia Scores, Congress Wiped Out

In Madhya Pradesh 22 of the 28 seats fell vacant after Jyotiraditya Scindia's crossover in March. (File)

New Delhi: The BJP today won big in bypolls across a dozen states, making crucial gains in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and scooping up key seats in states like Telangana and Gujarat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a series of tweets, thanked the people for choosing his party. Powered by Congress alum Jyotiraditya Scindia, the BJP won enough seats and more to stay in power in Madhya Pradesh. The ruling party also wrested eight seats from the Congress in Gujarat and retained six constituencies in Uttar Pradesh that went to the polls in the first electoral exercise held nationwide in the pandemic. Bypolls for 56 seats across the country were held on November 3.

The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh won 12 of the 28 assembly constituencies where bypolls were held and led in eight more this evening. Of these seats, 22 fell vacant following Jyotiraditya Scindia's crossover from the Congress to the BJP in March, which triggered the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the return of the BJP. "We're not even going to waste a single day. We'll start working tomorrow on aatmanirbhar MP. It is our duty to work for the people of MP. We accept this win humbly," Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said today.
In Haryana's Baroda assembly seat, the Congress's Indu Raj Narwal defeated the BJP's Yogeshwar Dutt by 12,300 votes. The BJP and the Congress were both leading on one seat each in Jharkhand, afternoon trends showed on Tuesday. The BJP's Lois Marandi was leading by 3,173 votes over the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Basant Soren in the Dumka seat. The Congress's Kumar Jaimangal (Anup Singh) is ahead by 11,677 votes of the BJP's Yogeshwar Mahto "Batul" in the Bermo seat.
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."
The BJP has won the Dubbaka Assembly by-election, PTI reported. The BJP's M Raghunandan Rao defeated the TRS's Solipeta Sujatha by 1,470 votes.
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 also created history of sorts by bagging the Sira assembly segment in Tumakuru district for the first time with party candidate CM Rajesh Gowda defeatig his closest rival, the Congress's TB Jayachandra, by a margin of over 12,000 votes, the PTI reported. In terms of numbers, these results matter little to the Karnataka government's stability.
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 Manipur 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.