The Telangana Rashtra Samiti delivered a crushing blow to Opposition parties by retaining the Warangal (SC) lok Sabha seat with a record majority of more than 4,59,000 votes. The BJP suffered a setback in its stronghold of Madhya Pradesh (MP) by conceding the tribal-dominated Ratlam-Jhabua seat to the Congress by a margin of 88,000 votes.
However, the Assembly bypolls brought some cheer to the BJP which retained the Dewas seat in MP and wrested both seats for which bypolls were held in Manipur. The Opposition Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) retained the Nongstoin Assembly seat in Meghalaya defeating the ruling Congress candidate by a margin of 2,700 votes in the November 21 bypoll.
In Telangana, Pasunuri Dayakar, a grassroot worker of TRS making his electoral debut bettered the party’s 2014 margin of victory of 3,95,000 votes ach-ieved by veteran Kadiam Srihari.
Dayakar left his opponents — Congress candidate Sarve Satyanarayana and BJP-TDP candidate P Devaiah — panting at second and third positions. Both of the rivals forfeited their deposits.
Expressing his happiness over the victory, Dayakar said this was the verdict of the people which proved beyond doubt that the TRS was the voice of their hearts. “I am overwhelmed by the massive support of the people. This is the victory of Telangana, TRS and KCR”, he said.
Celebrations erupted at the TRS headquarters “Telangna Bhavan” in Hyderabad as the trends became clear and Dayakar was increasing the margin of victory with each round. TRS workers also came out on the streets in Warangal and other districts of Telangana throwing the pink colours, bursting crackers and shouting slogans to celebrate the victory.
While TRS secured a total vote of 6,14,503, Congress polled 1,56,315 and the BJP came third with 1,30,178 votes.
In MP, the BJP received major setback when its candidate Nirmala Bhuria was trounced by Kantilal Bhuria of Congress in the bypoll in Ratlam-Jhabua (ST) lok Sabha seat, which the saffron party won in 2014.
Nirmala Bhuria, daughter of Dileep Singh Bhuria, whose death necessitated the bypoll, lost to former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria, who wrested the tribal-dominated seat from the BJP by a convincing margin of 88,832 votes, the Returning Officer said.
Kantilal got 5,36,743 votes while Nirmala bagged 4,47,911. Janata Dal(U) candidate Vijay Haari polled 21,549 votes. Besides, 24,342 voters opted for the NOTA (None of the Above) option.
Also, the Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party candidate Kisan Singh Chouhan got 14,248 votes, Bahujan Mukti Party nominee Kailash Vasunia secured 5,339 votes, Samta Samadhan Party’s Jalam Singh Patel 3,303 votes, Independents Josam Ramsingh got 6,601 votes and Pavan Singh Dodiya bagged 9,198 votes.
However, riding on ‘sympathy wave’ after the death of sitting MlA Tukoji Rao Puar, an erstwhile royal of Dewas, BJP retained Dewas Assembly seat where its candidate and Puar’s wife Gayatri Raje Puar defeated Congress’s Jai Prakash Shastri by a margin of 30,778 votes.
In Meghalaya, the HSPDP retained the Nongstoin Assembly seat defeating ruling Congress candidate. This is the second loss for the ruling Congress in a span of one month after it lost badly in the Garo tribal council elections held last month.
HSPDP candidate Diostar Jyndiang won the by-election by a margin of 2,763 votes over rival Congress candidate Gabriel Wahlang to retain the seat held by its former president for a very long time. While Jyndiang secured a total of 11,179 votes, Congress candidate secured a total of 8,416 votes.
In Manipur, the BJP captured both the seats -- Thangmeiband and Thongju - that went to polls. It has come as a boost for the party that is aspiring to capture power in the 2017 Assembly polls by unseating the Congress.