SP triumphs in UP, Congress wins in Rajasthan, BJP stuns Bengal

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party, which suffered a rout in the general elections, bounced back Tuesday in the assembly bypolls in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. For the first time in 15 years, the BJP will now have its lawmaker in the West Bengal assembly.

In Gujarat, the BJP romped home in Vadodara lok Sabha seat that was vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he also won from Varanasi parliamentary constituency. The Maninagar assembly seat, which Modi once represented, too saw a BJP victory. But, the Congress wrested three seats from the BJP, which retained six seats.

In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) retained Nandigama assembly seat, while the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) too retained Medak lok Sabha seat in neighbouring Telangana.

In the northeast, the BJP was leading in an assembly seat in Assam, while the AIUDF won one seat and was leading in two assembly constituencies. An independent candidate won in Sikkim. Tripura saw the CPI-M candidate emerge victorious with a record margin.

Buoyed by the performance of the Samajwadi Party that won four seats and was leading in four constituencies, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he was happy that the people of the state have reposed faith in his party and given a thumbs down to the "communal" politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"We are happy and thankful that people have preferred development and prosperity over false hopes and communal politics that BJP practised," he said.

The SP has won from Sirathu, Hamirpur, Bijnore and Charkhari assembly constituencies and had a comfortable lead of over two lakh votes in Mainpuri lok Sabha constituency from where Tej Pratap Singh, grand-nephew of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, is the party candidate.

The BJP, which had won all the 11 seats in the 2012 state assembly elections, went down to just three as counting progressed. The party won the Saharanpur (City) state assembly seat while its candidates were leading convincingly in lucknow (East) and Noida seats.

In Rajasthan, the Congress candidates won from Weir, Surajgarh and Nasirabad constituencies while the BJP's Sandeep Sharma was elected from the Kota South constituency.

An upbeat Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan state president of the Congress, described his party bagging three seats as "a win of our party workers". 

"Despite the use of official machinery by the BJP, we have won. The BJP did nothing since it came to power and on the contrary it stopped the social welfare schemes...," said Pilot. 

Pilot said that the party is now looking forward to the municipal and panchayat polls in the state due in the next few months.

Kailash Nath Bhatt, Rajasthan state spokesperson of the BJP, however, said: "This result does not in any reflect on performance of the (Vasundhara) Raje government. It was fought more on local issues. Yes, the party will sit and introspect the results." 

In West Bengal, after 15 long years, the BJP will have a representative in the assembly. Party candidate Shamik Bhattacharya Tuesday won the Basirhat (South) seat in the bypolls, while the state's ruling party Trinamool retained the Chowringhee seat.

Bhattacharya defeated Trinamool candidate and former soccer captain Dipendu Biswas in a hard-fought battle by a slender margin of over thousand votes.

In 1999, Badal Bhattacharya had won the Ashoknagar assembly seat - that too in a by-election. It was the only time in past that the BJP had a legislator in the state. However, the BJP was in alliance with the Trinamool that time.

In Assam, the AIUDF won one seat while it was leading in another constituency. The BJP was leading in a third constituency. The AIUDF was leading in lakhipur while the BJP candidate was in the lead in Silchar assembly seat. 

In Jamunamukh seat, the AIUDF candidate emerged victorious.

The picturesque hill state of Sikkim saw independent candidate Rup Narayan Chamling winning the assembly by-poll from Rangang-Yangang assembly constituency.

The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Pawan Chamling resigned from the seat and retained Namchi-Singhithang after the April assembly elections. R.N. Chamling is brother of Pawan Chamling.

CPI-M candidate Pravat Chowdhury Tuesday won the Manu assembly seat in southern Tripura, defeating his nearest Congress rival Mailafru Mog by a record margin of around 16,000 votes.

The returning officer to the Manu assembly by-poll, Rajib Datta told IANS that the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) candidate Chowdhury, a former agriculture department official, secured 21,759 votes while his nearest Congress nominee Mailafru Mog got 5,788 votes.