New Delhi, December 15
As an icing on the party’s spectacular show in the Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP today romped home in two Lok Sabha seats, wresting one from the Congress, and made a clean sweep of three Assembly seats in Rajasthan in the December 12 bypoll spread across six states.
The saffron party wrested the Mehsana Lok Sabha seat from the Congress in Gujarat, retained the Godda parliamentary seat in Jharkhand but bit the dust in the prestigious Nainital constituency in Uttaranchal, once considered its bastion, losing to the Congress.
The BJP won all three
Assembly seats in Rajasthan, wresting one each from the ruling Congress and its ally in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP.
The Congress and the Asom Gana Parishad won one Assembly seat each in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, respectively.
In the Mehsana Lok Sabha seat, the BJP’s Punjaji Thakore defeated Mr Maneklal Patel of Congress by a margin of over one lakh votes.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of Congress leader and former Gujarat Minister Atmaram Patel.
The Congress retained the Nainital Lok Sabha seat when its candidate Mahendra Singh Pal routed the BJP’s Balraj Passi by a margin of over one lakh votes.
Uttarancal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari vacated the seat following his election to the state Assembly.
Mr Pal secued 2,00,181 votes against Mr Passi’s 95,995. The BSP’s Subhas Sarkar was placed third with 74,846 votes.
In the Godda Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of the BJP’s Jagadambi Prasad Yadav, the saffron party’s Pradeeep Yadav trounced the JMM’s Hussain Ansari by over 93,000 votes.
In Rajasthan, the saffron party retained the Bali Assembly seat, which fell vacant after its leader Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat became Vice-President, and wrested the Sagwara (ST) seat from the Congress and Bansur from the BSP.
The BJP’s Pushpendra Singh defeated Mr Bheem Raj Bhat of the Congress by a margin of over 13,000 votes in Bali.
Mr Kanal Mal Katara, also from the BJP, romped home from the Sagwara (ST) constituency trouncing Mr Surendra Kumar of the Congress by over 14,000 votes.
The third Assembly bypoll in Rajasthan also went to the saffron party when its candidate Mr Rohitashwa Kumar got past Mr Sardara Ram of the Congress by over 2,000 votes.
The Asom Gana Parishad bagged the Khumtai Assembly seat when its candidate Mr Prabin Gogoi defeated his Congress rival Lachit Phukan by a margin of 3,061 votes.
Mr Yari Dulom of the ruling Congress emerged triumphant from the Daporijo Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh prevailing over Arunachal Congress’ Daklo Nidak by a margin of 2,952 votes.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of Tadak Dulom, who was a Cabinet Minister in the Congress government led by Mr Mukut Mithi.
His widow Ms Yari Dulom, who won the seat today, was inducted as Minister for Social welfare, Women and Child Development on August 20.
PTI
