The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Trinamool Congress won by-polls in Maharashtra and West Bengal, respectively — the latter stunning the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh by winning its first seat in the state.
In Tamil Nadu, the ruling AIADMK won the Pudukottai by-poll while Tripura’s Left Front retained the Nalchar assembly constituency.
The Congress, however, had reason to cheer only in Kerala. Its candidate R Selvaraj won at Neyattinkara by beating his CPM and BJP rivals. Selvaraj, a former CPM legislator, who had resigned from the party to join the Congress, beat F Lawrence of CPM.
In Maharashtra, the NCP retained the Kej assembly seat, with Prithviraj Sathe overcoming BJP’s Sangeet Thombre by a margin of around 8,500 votes. The election was necessitated by the death of former health minister and senior NCP woman leader Vimal Mundada.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool retained the Daspur and Bankura assembly seats, but saw its winning margin come down.
In Bankura constituency in Bankura district, Trinamool’s Minati Mishra humbled her nearest rival Nilanjan Dasgupta of CPM, while her party colleague, Mamata Bhunia was elected from Daspur in West Midnapore district, defeating CPM’s Samar Mukherjee.
The assembly constituencies fell vacant following the deaths of sitting members Ajit Bhunia and Kashinath Mishra - the husbands of the two Trinamool candidates.
The Trinamool, however, pulled a shock win in Uttar Pradesh where its Shyam Sundar Sharma won the Mant seat in Mathura, defeating his nearest rival Yogesh Nuahwar of the Rashtriya Lok Dal. The Samajwadi Party candidate Sanjay Lathar, a close aide of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, came a poor third.
The AIADMK increased its tally in Tamil Nadu assembly to 115 with its candidate Karthik Thondaiman winning the Pudukottai by-election, defeating N Jahir Hussain of DMDK. The by-election was necessitated by the death of Communist Party of India legislator S P Muthukumaran in a road accident in April. It was a straight fight between the AIADMK and the DMDK after the DMK and the CPI decided to boycott the poll.
Eight months ahead of the assembly polls in Tripura, the ruling CPI-M Friday retained the Nalchar seat, while increasing its victory margin. CPM candidate Tapan Chandra Das defeated Congress’s Dwijendralal Majumder by a margin of 4,777 votes.
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