The INDIA bloc parties secured victory in 10 assembly seats, with the BJP taking two seats and an Independent candidate winning one. The Election Commission began the counting of votes on Saturday following the by-elections held earlier in the week, covering a total of seven states and 13 Assembly seats.
The bypolls were conducted on Wednesday, spanning four seats in West Bengal, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu. Congress, TMC, AAP, and DMK from the INDIA bloc had fielded their candidates in these bypolls.
In Punjab, Mohinder Bhagat of the ruling AAP emerged victorious in the Jalandhar West seat, defeating BJP’s Sheetal Angural by a substantial margin of 37,325 votes. The seat was vacated when Angural resigned as AAP legislator to join BJP earlier in March. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann hailed the win as a reflection of public satisfaction with his government’s performance.
Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu’s Vikravandi constituency, Anniyur Siva of the ruling DMK secured a win, defeating Ambumani C of the NDA coalition by a margin of 67,757 votes.
In West Bengal, TMC candidates Krishna Kalyani, Mukut Nami Adhikari, Madhuparna Thakur, and Supti Pandey emerged victorious in Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Banga respectively, defeating BJP contenders by significant margins.
Himachal Pradesh saw Congress’ Kamlesh Thakur winning the Dehra seat, defeating BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh by 9,399 votes, while Hardeep Singh Bawa secured victory in Nalagarh against BJP’s K L Thakur by 25,618 votes. BJP’s Ashish Sharma won the Hamirpur seat in the state.
In Uttarakhand, Congress candidates Lakhapat Singh Butola and Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin emerged victorious in the Badrinath and Manglaur bypolls respectively, defeating BJP contenders Rajendra Singh Bhandari and Kartar Singh Bhadana.
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP’s Kamslesh Pratap Shah won the Amarwara seat against Congress’ Dheeran Sah Invati, while in Bihar, Independent candidate Shankar Singh secured victory in Rupauli, defeating JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal by 8,246 votes.