BJP power point with four of seven bypoll seats in its bag

The only place Congress put up some fight was in Adampur where it came second with 39.35% votes.

Image used for representational purpose only. ( File Photo )

NEW DELHI: The BJP showed why it is a formidable war machine as it won four of the seven Assembly bypolls, results for which were announced on Sunday. The biggest loser was the Congress as two seats it held Adampur in Haryana and Munugode in Telangana were wrested by the BJP and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, respectively. Both seats had fallen vacant following the defection of the sitting Congress members to the BJP.

The only place Congress put up some fight was in Adampur where it came second with 39.35% votes. In the other two seats it contested, Munugodu and Dhamnagar in Odisha, it managed to poll just 10.58% and 2.18%, respectively.

The Adamapur seat went to Oxford-educated BJP candidate Bhavya Bishnoi, son Kuldeep Bishnoi who defected to the BJP. In Dhamnagar, the BJP’s Suryabanshi Suraj polled 49.09% votes, defeating the BJD by a margin of 9,881 votes.

The BJP’s Kusum Devi won the Gopalganj seat by the slimmest of margins, defeating RJD candidate Mohan Prasad Gupta by 1,794 votes. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Kusum’s husband Subhash Singh. Kusum got 41.6% of the total votes polled.

Elated at Gopalganj victory, BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh said: “The victory is especially sweet in Bihar because the BJP was up against ruling mahagathbandhan.” According to poll analyst P K D Nambiar, it was the Modi magic at work.

In the high profile Mokama seat that was billed as a muscleman vs muscleman contest, the RJD’s Neelam Devi defeated BJP’s Sonam Devi by more than 16,000 votes. The by-election was necessitated after the disqualification of Neelam’s husband Anant Singh by a Patna court in an arms case.

Of the six states where by-elections were held, Munugode witnessed a prestigious battle between the ruling TRS and the BJP. The bypoll for the seat was necessitated following the resignation of Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who entered the fray on a BJP ticket. He was defeated by TRS’ Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy by more than 10,000 votes.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP comfortably retained its Gola Gokrannath seat, getting 55.88% of the total votes polled. At 40.52% the SP was a distant second in the race. This seat has also fallen vacant after the death of BJP’s sitting MLA Arvind Giri. The Congress and the BSP had not fielded their candidates this time.

Rutuja Latke, the candidate of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), won the Andheri (East) seat earlier represented by her late husband. Interestingly, the second-highest number of votes — 14.7%—went to the None Of The Above (NOTA) option there.

Who got what

BJP holds three seats, Gola Gokarannath in UP, Dhamnagar in Odisha and Gopalganj in Bihar; wrests Adampur in Haryana from Congress

RJD retains Mokama; TRS wrests Munugodu from Cong; Shiv Sena ShivSena (Uddhav) holds Andheri