Bypoll results 2022: BJP's lotus blooms in four seats; Congress faces another setback
In Haryana, BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in Haryana's Adampur by a margin of around 16,000 votes, maintaining the family's winning streak.
FollowIn the recently-concluded bypolls, BJP has won in four of the six seats it contested and has invigorated the party ahead of assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. It has given tough competition to erstwhile ally Nitish Kumar's Grand Alliance in Bihar and ended the BJD's winning run in Odisha.
The Congress drew a blank in as many as seven assembly constituencies such as Adampur, Gola Gokarannath, Dhamnagar, Andheri (East), Mokama, Gopalganj and Munugode, in six states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha and Telangana that went to polls on November 3.
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The results of the bypolls was announced on Sunday. While the TRS managed to get a foothold by winning the high-stakes bypoll to Munugode Assembly constituency, it had to overcome a spirited challenge from the BJP.
The bypoll assumed immense political significance as it was seen as a virtual semi-final ahead of next year's Legislative Assembly polls in Telangana.
The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) took it as a prestige issue as a loss would have dented its plans to go national. In Maharashtra, Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), won the by-election to Andheri (East) in Mumbai, the seat earlier represented by her deceased husband, after major parties including the BJP did not field candidates.
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The second-highest number of votes (14.79 per cent) went to the None Of The Above (NOTA) option in the constituency. The BJP said the result of the November 3 by-election was a stamp of approval by people on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies as it retained Gola Gokarannath in Uttar Pradesh, Dhamnagar in Odisha and Gopalganj in Bihar where it had fielded the kin of its party MLAs whose death necessitated the polls.
In Haryana, BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in Haryana's Adampur by a margin of around 16,000 votes, maintaining the family's winning streak.
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The AAP and INLD candidates lost their deposits as they failed to secure one-sixth of the votes polled. The resignation of Bhavya's father Kuldeep Bishnoi necessitated the by-election after he left the Congress and joined the BJP. The Adampur seat has been held by the Bhajan Lal's family since 1968, with the late leader representing it on nine occasions, his wife Jasma Devi once and Kuldeep on four occasions.
Meanwhile, the AIMIM won as many as five seats in the last assembly polls and all but one of its MLAs joined the RJD. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the decrease in the BJP's victory margin was a "success" for them and their alliance will win in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
(With inputs from PTI)
