A sympathy wave and pro-incumbency factors played a key role in deciding the outcome of five Assembly bypolls, with the ruling parties in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand winning four of those seats. The highlight was Congress heavyweight Narayan Rane suffering the humiliation of a second defeat in six months when he lost Mumbai’s Bandra (East) seat. The results helped Akali Dal gain majority on its own in Punjab while the Congress came into the same situation in Uttarakhand.
Three women candidates, who contested seats that fell vacant after the demise of their husbands, rode a sympathy wave to romp home, while a fourth retained the seat, won by her husband who was disqualified later on conviction in a murder case. Rane, a former Chief Minister, suffered defeat at the hands of Shiv Sena’s Trupti Sawant, who won by 19,008 votes. Trupti’s husband Bala Sawant’s death necessitated the bypoll. Rane had lost from his home turf Kankavali in coastal Konkan region in last October’s elections.
Even though, the Shiv Sena and BJP are not on the best of terms in the State, still they put up a united show in the elections to hold back Rane. In the other by-election in the State, NCP nominee and late RR Patil’s wife Sumantai Patil won in Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal Assembly constituency of Sangli district by over 1.12 lakh votes. The NCP retained the seat which fell vacant following the death of RR Patil. No major party had put up a candidate against her.
In Punjab, the ruling Akali Dal wrested the Dhuri seat from the Congress and in Uttar Pradesh the ruling Samajwadi Party retained the Charkhari seat in Mahoba. The Akali Dal candidate Gobind Singh longowal won with a handsome margin, defeating Simar Partap Singh, a political greenhorn and grandson of former Governor and Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala.
SP candidate Urmila Rajput, whose husband Kaptan Singh was disqualified after conviction in a murder case necessitating the by-election, won by a comfortable margin of over 40,000 votes defeating BJP’s Gangacharan Rajput, a former MP.In Uttarakhand, the ruling Congress won the Bhagwanpur seat with its candidate Mamata Rakesh defeating BJP rival Rajpal Singh by nearly 37,000 votes. Now, the Congress has a majority mark in the State Assembly on its own.
Mamata, widow of former MlA and Cabinet Minister Surendra Rakesh, contested the election on a Congress ticket. She garnered 59,205 votes whereas Rajpal polled 22,296 votes at the end of the last round of counting.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Rakesh in February, who had won the seat in the 2012 Assembly elections on a BSP ticket. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Harish Rawat Government. The victory is significant for Congress in the State as it has helped the party secure the elusive majority figure of 36 on its own in the 70-member House.