BJP bags 4 in State bypolls

Results of the Assembly by-elections announced on Monday saw the BJP bagging four, NCP one and the Congress winning two seats. Bypolls were held in seven seats across five states, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Tripura.

In Gujarat, BJP candidate Harshad Parmar won the by-poll to the Umreth Assembly seat, defeating his nearest rival from Congress, Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan, by a margin of more than 30,000 votes. The bypoll, held on April 23, was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar on March 6 following a heart attack. The BJP fielded his son Harshad Parmar, and this was his first major election.

In Maharashtra’s Rahuri, BJP candidate Akshay Shivajirao Kardile defeated Govind Mokate of the NCP (SP) by a margin of more than 1.12 lakh votes. The by-poll to the constituency in Ahilyanagar district was necessitated due to the death of Kardile’s father and sitting MLA Shivajirao Kardile.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister (CM) and NCP president, Sunetra Pawar, won the bypoll from the Baramati Assembly seat with a margin of 2,18,034 votes, according to the figures shared by the ECI. She secured 2,18,969 votes in the by-election necessitated by the death of her husband and then Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

The NCP claimed that Sunetra Pawar has set a new national record of the highest victory margin in the assembly elections, surpassing the previous record attributed to BJP’s Sunil Kumar Sharma, who had won the Sahibabad segment by 2.14 lakh votes in 2022. In a social media post, Sunetra Pawar thanked the people of Baramati for the overwhelming mandate.

In Nagaland, BJP candidate Daochier I Imchen won the by-election to the Koridang Assembly segment, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI). With the victory, Imchen enters the 14th Nagaland assembly as the youngest legislator at 35.

In Tripura’s Dharmanagar, BJP candidate Jahar Chakraborti retained the seat with a commanding margin of over 18,000 votes, polling more than 24,000 votes. The bypoll, held after the death of Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen, was seen as a test for the ruling Government. Chief Minister Manik Saha described the outcome as a clear endorsement of his administration’s work.

In Karnataka, Congress won both the bypolls. Samarth Mallikarjun won the Davanagere South Assembly seat by a margin of 5,708 votes, the ECI said. In Bagalkot, the other constituency where bypolls were held, Congress candidate Umesh Meti defeated BJP’s Veerabhadrayya Charantimath — a former MLA — by a margin of 22,332 votes. The polls were necessitated by the deaths of senior Congress MLAs HY Meti (Bagalkot) and Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Davanagere South).