Continuing its victory march, the Bharatiya Janata Party has so far won four of the 10 assembly seats across eight states where by-elections were held on Sunday. While the saffron party has already registered a victory in Delhi (Rajouri Garden), Himachal Pradesh(Bhorani), Madhya Pradesh (Bandhavgarh), Assam (Dhemaji) and Rajasthan( Dholpur), the party is engaged in a close fight with Congress in Madhya Pradesh’s Ater seat. The last few elections saw BJP making massive gains in regions where it was considered a minor player. The party got a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly elections. It also won big in Maharashtra civic polls, it bagged eight of the 10 municipal corporations in the state where elections were held in February.
BJP candidate Ranoj Pegu won the Dhemaji Assembly by-election in Assam defeating his nearest Congress rival Babul Sonowal by 9,285 votes.While the BJP candidate polled 75,217 votes, his Congress rival garnered 65,932 votes.
BJP candidate Anil Dhiman won the Bhoranj assembly seat in Himachal Pradesh defeating the nearest rival from Congress by 8,290 votes. While the BJP secured 24,434 vote, his Congress rival Parmila Devi garnered 16,144 votes.
BJP retained Bandhavgarh Assembly seat in MP after defeating rival Congress by margin of over 25,000 votes. BJP nominee Shivnarayan Singh defeated Congress’ candidate Savitri Singh from the seat in Umaria district by 25,476 votes.
The saffron party has also snatched Rajasthan’s Dholpur seat from Mayawati’s BSP. BJP candidate Shobha Rani Kushwaha defeated BSP’s Banwri Lal Sharma by a margin of over 38,000 votes.
Congress also managed to save some face as the grand old party has been able to retain both the assembly seats of Nanjangud and Gundlupet in Karnataka. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidate Chandrima Bhattacharya won from Kanthi Dakshin with 95369 votes. He was followed by BJP’s Sourindra Mohan Jana who secured 52843 votes. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Simon Marandi has maintained a good lead over BJP’s Hemlal Murmu in Littpara assembly seat. As per latest reports, Marandi has secured 38269 votes, while BJP candidate has managed 29,320 votes.
However, the big setback was reserved for Aam Aadmi Party that lost the by-poll in Rajouri Garden Assembly seat. BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa handed a humiliating defeat to AAP”s Harjeet Singh with Delhi’ruling party coming a distant third and even lost deposit. Sirsa bagged 40,602 seats, over 50% of the total votes polled, Congress’ Meenakshi Chandela finished second with 25,950 votes while AAP’s Harjeet Singh managed to get only 10,243 votes, less than one-sixth of the total votes polled. Rajouri Garden seat was left vacant by AAP’s Jarnail Singh who quit to contest against Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal in the Punjab assembly elections.
