UPA, BSP register bypoll victories

The BSP won nine of the 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, wresting five from the SP and two from the Congress.

BSP candidates romped home in Padarauna, Haiser Bazar, Lalitpur, Rari, Etawah, Bharthana, Isauli, Jhansi and Puwayana assembly seats. The Congress bagged the prestigious Lucknow (West) seat, while an Independent won from the Kolasla assembly seat.

The BSP wrested Etawah, Bharthana, Isauli, Puwayan and Haiser Bazar seats from the SP and Padarauna and Jhansi seats from the Congress. The Congress seized the Lucknow (West) seat from the BJP. The BJP suffered humiliating defeats and its nominee could finish only second in Lucknow and in other seats, party candidates lost their deposits.

The United Democratic Front maintained its winning spree in Kerala as the Congress, which leads the front, retained all the three assembly constituencies by convincing margins. 

In Alappuzha, District Congress Committee president A A Shukkoor trounced CPI’s G Krishnaprasad by 4,745 votes despite the left parties putting up an impressive show of unity. In Ernakulam, former minister Dominic Presentation defeated CPM’s P N Seenulal by a margin of 8,620 votes.

In Kannur, A P Abdullakutty, CPM’s two time MP, who was expelled by the party in June, defeated his  former colleague M V Jayarajan by 12,043 votes.

Meanwhile, in West Bengal, The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress on Tuesday scripted almost a total rout of the ruling CPM-led Left Front, bagging 8 of the 10 seats.

While the TMC, which fielded candidates in seven seats, made a clean sweep winning all of them, the CPM was delivered a crushing blow, having drawn a blank after contesting five.

The Congress, which contested three,could retain only one. The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha(GJM) spearheading an agitation in the Darjeeling Hill areas, handed out a pleasant surprise to its political rivals when a GJM-supported Independent emerged victorious in the plains –– Kalchini –– in North Bengal.

In Rajasthan, the ruling Congress and opposition BJP  won one seat each. While Congress candidate Basanti won the Salumber seat defeating her rival candidate Amrit Lal by a margin of 3,980 votes, the BJP managed to win the reserved seat of Todabhim.