Bypoll Results Highlights: Congress vindicated as party wins 4 of six seats in Himachal, where it ousted MLAs; BJP wins all 5 seats in Gujarat

Himachal Pradesh seats that are up for grabs

Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar.

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In Haryana's Karnal, Manohar Lal Khattar's resignation has opened up the seat

Gainsari assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after the demise of SP MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav

Four former Congress members among BJP candidates for five Gujarat seats

The four ex-Congress MLAs the BJP has fielded as its candidates are Modhwadia from Porbandar, Chatursinh Chavda from Vijapur in Mehsana district, Chirag Patel from Khambhat assembly seat in Anand district, and Arvind Ladani from Manavadar.

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Here's a list of the 13 states for which bypoll results will be announced by the ECI today

Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, UP, W Bengal, Telangana, Himachal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.

Rajasthan's Bagidora which has been a stronghold of Congress is set to witness a contest between BJP's Subhash Tambolisa who is a Congress turncoat, and Bharatiya Adivasi Party's Jaikrishn Patel with support from Congress.

Bagidora seat is vacant after Congress MLA Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya resigned, and joined BJP.

Bypolls were conducted in West Bengal's Baranagar seat after TMC MLA Tapas Roy defected to the BJP.

TMC actress-turned-politician Sayantika Banerjee contested from the Baranagar seat against BJP's Sajal Ghosh. Bhagwangola seat also witnessed bypolls after the demise of TMC MLA Idris Ali.

Meanwhile, the counting of votes for the world's largest elections commences. Find all details on counting through DH's Live Blog

Himachal Pradesh: Counting of votes begins for Lok Sabha elections, bypolls to six assembly seats (PTI)

Shimla: Counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security for Himachal Pradesh's four Lok Sabha seats and six assembly constituencies where bypolls were held, officials said on Tuesday.

The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

The six seats fell vacant after the rebel Congress MLAs who abstained from voting on the cut motion and finance bill (Budget) in the assembly were disqualified for defying a party whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the government. They later joined the BJP and were fielded by the party from the constituencies they had vacated.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats.

The 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly currently has an effective strength of 62, following the disqualification of the six MLAs. The Congress has 34 members in the House while the BJP has 25 at present.

The BJP won all four Lok Sabha seats— Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur and Shimla— in the 2014 and the 2019 elections. However, it lost the Mandi seat to the Congress in a 2021 bypoll.

Counting under way for 26 seats across 13 states

Counting under way

Counting under way.

Four seats in Uttar Pradesh underwent bypolling the results of which will be declared today as counting under way

BJP MLA from Duddhi, Ram Dular, was disqualified after he was convicted in a rape case. Bypolls were also held in Gainsari, Lucknow East, and Dadraul assembly seats that fell vacant after the death of sitting MLAs Shiv Pratap Yadav (SP), Ashutosh Tandon (BJP), and Manavendra Singh (BJP), respectively.

Result of Shorapur seat in Karnataka that saw bypolling after the demise of Congress MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik will be announced today

Congress candidate ahead in TN Assembly bypoll (PTI)

Chennai: Initial trends emerging for by-election to the Vilavancode Assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district indicated a lead for Congress party candidate Tharahai Cuthbert.

Following counting of postal ballots and votes from several regions at the close of 9 am, Cuthbert had a lead, according to regional inputs and local television channels.

The Congress party is an ally of Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK. Nanthini VS (BJP), Rani U (AIADMK) and Jemini R (Naam Tamilar Katchi) are the other key candidates.

Union Minister and BJP candidate from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat Anurag Singh Thakur leading from the seat with a margin of 6492 votes. (ANI)

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said strict instructions have been passed to ensure complete transparency in the ongoing process of counting of votes. (PTI)

Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar.

Till 9 45 am on Tuesday, BJP is leading in 5 seats in Gujarat while the saffron party is gaining numbers in 10 of the total 26 seats, including Shorapur in Karnataka. Congress is leading in 5 seats. (ECI)

PM Narendra Modi with BJP's poll manifesto (L) and (R) Rahul Gandhi with the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. 

In Himachal, BJP was leading in 3 seats while the Congress was leading in two with an independent candidate leading in 1 seat.

BJP was leading in Himachal with 18,046 votes till 10 am of counting which is under way while Congress is trailing with 14,139 votes, as per ECI data

Overall, till 11 am, BJP was leading in 13 seats with 2,05,658 votes while the Congress was trailing with 94,201 votes from six seats of counting, including Karnataka's Shorapur (ECI)

BJP was leading in all five seats in Gujarat till 10 45 am with a margin of 56,910 votes. Of the 26 seats, Congress was trailing with 65,413 votes in four seats, including Shorapur where the grand old party garnered 33,550 votes with a margin of 6,833.

Congress and BJP flags

Karnal assembly bypoll: Haryana CM Nayab Saini leading with 1,770 votes (PTI)

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was leading with 1,770 votes over his nearest Congress rival Tarlochan Singh in the Karnal assembly seat, where bypolls where held last month, according to Election Commission trends.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.

Counting of votes for 10 Lok Sabha constituencies and the Karnal seat in Haryana began at 8 am. Chief Minister Saini is the outgoing MP from Kurukshetra.

Polling for the Lok Sabha seats and the Karnal assembly constituency was held in the sixth phase of the general elections on May 25.

Saini was sworn in as the chief minister on March 12 replacing Manohar Lal Khattar.

Khattar's resignation as MLA from Karnal had necessitated the by-election. He has been fielded by the BJP from the Karnal parliamentary seat.

Close contest on all seats in Himachal, BJP ahead in three (PTI)

Shimla: Three out of six Congress rebels who are now BJP candidates for the assembly bypolls in Himachal Pradesh are leading from their respective seats but there seems to be a close contest in all six seats in the state, as per Election Commission trends.

Counting of votes for assembly bypolls are being held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP's Sudhir Sharma, a former minister, is ahead by 297 votes in Dharamshala, while party candidate from Kutlehar, Davinder Bhutto, is leading by 891 votes.

BJP candidate from Barsar, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, is leading by 2,043 votes, and independent candidate and former BJP minister Ram Lal Markanda is leading by 1,540 votes in Lahaul and Spiti assembly constituency.

BJP leader Rajinder Rana, who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls, is trailing from Sujanpur seat by 190 votes and the BJP's Chetanya Sharma(BJP) from Gagret is trailing by 1,675 votes.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats. The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

Six assembly seats fell vacant following disqualification of Congress rebels for defying the whip to vote in favour of the Congress's state government during the budget.

The six rebel legislators voted for the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls on February 29, later joined BJP and are now contesting on the BJP ticket from their respective assembly segments.

Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret) and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) had voted in favour of BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee Harsh Mahajan on February 27 along with three Independents.

In the Karnal assembly constituency, where a bypoll was held, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was leading by 2,407 votes over Congress' Tarlochan Singh. (PTI)

Till 11 50 am, Congress was leading in 4 of 6 Himachal seats with 75,834 votes while the BJP was ahead in 2 with 42,561 votes (ECI)

Overall, the BJP till 12 noon was leading in 13 seats with 4,74,593 votes while the Congress was ahead in 7 seats with 1,60,191 votes as the counting continues (ECI)

Poll officials at a counting centre during counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections, in Shimla Tuesday, June 4, 2024.

Gujarat assembly bypolls: BJP ahead in all 5 seats (PTI)

Ahmedabad: The BJP was on Tuesday leading in all five assembly seats in Gujarat where by-elections were held last month.

The bypolls to Porbandar, Manavadar, Khambhat, Vaghodiya and Vijapur assembly seats were necessitated after their sitting Congress and independent MLAs joined the BJP.

The ruling BJP fielded all of them from their respective seats in the bypolls held on May 7.

File photo showing men wearing masks with Modi's face imprinted.

As counting was underway on Tuesday, BJP nominees Arjun Modhwadia and CJ Chavda were leading over their Congress rivals in the Porbandar and Vijapur assembly seats, respectively, according to the latest data of the Election Commission.

BJP candidates Arvind Ladani, Chirag Patel and Dharmendrasinh Vaghela were also ahead of their rivals in Manavadar, Khambat and Vaghodiya seats, respectively.

Modhwadia, Chavda, Ladani and Patel had won the 2022 state assembly polls on the Congress' ticket, while Vaghela won as an independent candidate. All of them later joined the BJP.

Overall, BJP was leading in 13 seats by a margin of 3,76,399 till 2 30 pm with 7,34,886 votes. (ECI)

Arjun Devabhai Modhwadia who defected to BJP from Congress and is representing the saffron party from Porbandar seat in Gujarat bagged the most votes till 2 30 pm on Tuesday. Modhwadia's vote count till noon stood at 1,33,163.

Arjun Modhwadia

In Karnataka's Shorapur, Congress' Raja Venugopal Naik was leading by a margin of 21,255 votes against BJP candidate Narasimha Nayak. (ECI)

Congress ahead in four out of six seats in Himachal (PTI)

Shimla: Congress candidates were ahead in four assembly bypoll seats in Himachal Pradesh, while two of the six Congress rebels who are now BJP candidates were leading from their respective seats, as per Election Commission trends.

All six seats in the state are seeing a close contest, according to EC trends.

BJP candidates from Kutlehar and Gagret, Davinder Bhutto and Chaitanya Sharma, were trailing by 4,272 votes and 7,970 votes, respectively.

Incumbent Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Congress candidate from Lahaul and Spiti seat, Anuradha Rana, was leading by 1,786 votes after the last round (14) of counting even though official declaration of the result is awaited.

BJP leader Rajinder Rana, who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls, was trailing from Sujanpur seat by 2,174 votes.

BJP's Sudhir Sharma, a former minister, was ahead by 3,115 votes in Dharamshala, while his party candidate from Barsar, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, was leading by 2,441 votes.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats.

The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

Six assembly seats fell vacant following disqualification of Congress rebels for defying the whip to vote in favour of the Congress's state government during the budget.

The six rebel legislators voted for the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls on February 29, later joined BJP and are now contesting on the BJP ticket from their respective assembly segments.

Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chetanya Sharma (Gagret) and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) had voted in favour of BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee Harsh Mahajan on February 27 along with three Independents.

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BJP's Arjun Devabhai Modhwadia has won from Porbandar in Gujarat by a margin of 1,16,808 votes. (ECI)

With BJP leading in all 5 seats of Gujarat, the party's candidate Arjun Devabhai Modhwadia bagged 1,33,163 votes and won the Porbandar seat defeating Congress candidate Odedara Raju Bhima.

At 3 20 pm, BJP was leading by a margin of 3,04,836 in 12 seats with the saffron party winning the Porbandar seat in Gujarat. Counting is under way for the remaining 24 seats.

Congress candidate from Himachal's Sujanpur Captain Ranjit Singh won by margin of 2,440 against BJP's Rajender Rana. Singh bagged 29,529 votes.

JMM's Kalpana Soren leads by 26,000 votes in Gandey bypoll in J'khand

Ranchi: Kalpana Soren, the wife of jailed former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, was leading by about 26,000 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma in the Gandey assembly bypoll, election officials said on Tuesday.

She was earlier trailing by a margin of 2,242 votes.

The seat fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.

The counting of votes for the Gandey assembly by-election is likely to be completed in 24 rounds.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Kalpana Soren.

The polls in Gandey were held on May 20, and 2.17 lakh of 3.16 lakh voters had exercised their franchise.

Kalpana had embarked on a political journey at the 51st Foundation Day celebration of the JMM in Giridih district on March 4, claiming that a conspiracy had been orchestrated by opponents ever since the Hemant Soren coalition government came to power in 2019.

Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31 in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. He resigned from the post before the arrest.

Kalpana had been a prominent face in INDIA bloc rallies in Jharkhand and campaigned for the alliance in the state.

She was one of the prominent speakers at the 'Ulgulan Nyay' rally in Ranchi, which was attended by leaders of 28 parties on April 21.

After the ruling JMM-led alliance proved its majority on February 5 and her husband made a fiery speech in the assembly, Kalpana took to X to announce that the "fight against injustice and oppression will continue".

Kalpana holds an engineering and MBA degree.

Grab all the poll related action as the counting for the world's largest elections continues, with DH's Live Blog

Congress has won two seats in Himachal and the single seat in Karnataka that witnessed bypolls on May 7

Congress candidate Anuradha Rana won Himachal's Lahaul and Spiti seat with a margin of1,960 votes against independent candidate Ram Lal Markanda. The grand old party also registered victory in Karnataka's Shorapur where its candidate Raja Venugopal Naik won by a margin of 18,320— bagging 1,14,886 votes against BJP's Narasimha Nayak.

Congress won third seat in Himachal with its candidate Rakesh Kalia defeating BJP's Chaitanya Sharma by a margin of 8,487 votes. (ECI)

Congress candidate for Gagret Rakesh Kalia.

Results of seven seats have been declared while the counting for the remaining 18 is under way. BJP's Dipak Majumder won the Ramnagar seat in Tripura by defeating CPI(M)'s Ratan Das by a margin of 18,014 votes.

(L to R) PM Modi with Dipak Majumder

Congress wins three seats in Himachal, leading in one more

Shimla: Congress on Tuesday won three assembly bypoll seats in Himachal Pradesh and was ahead in one more seat, while the BJP was leading in two constituencies, as per the Election Commission.

Congress leaders from Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur and Gagret seats have won the elections while its candidate was leading in Kutlehar. BJP candidates are leading in Dharamshala and Barsar seats.

In a triangular contest in Lahaul and Spiti bypoll, Congress candidate Anuradha Rana won by defeating her nearest rival independent candidate and former BJP minister Ram Lal Markanda by a margin of 1,960 votes.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi during a roadshow for Lok Sabha elections.

Anuradha Rana, who is the first woman to have contested elections from Lahaul and Spiti in 52 years, became the second woman ever to win from the assembly segment.

Anuradha Rana polled 9,414 votes against 7,454 votes polled by Markanda, while BJP candidate Ravi Thakur stood third with 3,049 votes.

In Sujanpur, Congress rebel and now BJP candidate Rajinder Rana lost to Captain Ranjit Singh by a margin of 2,440 votes.

Rajinder Rana, who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls, polled 27,089 votes against 29,529 polled by Singh. The result has been officially declared by the EC.

BJP candidate from Gagret, Chaitanya Sharma, lost by 8,487 votes to Congress' Rakesh Kalia.

BJP's candidate from Kutlehar, Davinder Bhutto, is trailing behind by 4,887 votes after the last round of counting.

BJP's Sudhir Sharma, a former minister, is ahead by 5,526 votes in Dharamshala, while his party candidate from Barsar, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, is leading by 2,441 votes.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats.

The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

Six assembly seats fell vacant following disqualification of Congress rebels for defying the whip to vote in favour of the Congress's state government during the budget.

The six rebel legislators voted for the BJP in Rajya Sabha polls on February 29, later joined BJP and are now contesting on the BJP ticket from their respective assembly segments.

Rajinder Rana (Sujanpur), Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Ravi Thakur (Lahaul and Spiti), Inder Dutt Lakhanpal (Barsar), Chaitanya Sharma (Gagret) and Devinder Kumar Bhutto (Kutlehar) had voted in favour of BJP's Rajya Sabha nominee Harsh Mahajan on February 27 along with three Independents.

As counting completes for 10 seats, BJP won three in Gujarat, and two seats in Himachal. Congress has till 5 pm won three seats in Himachal Pradesh

Congress wins Secunderabad Cantt seat in Telangana with its candidate Sriganesh defeating BJP's Dr Vamsha Tilak T N by margin of 13,206 votes. With this, the counting for 11 seats completes. (ECI)

With completion of counting in 13 seats, Congress registered victory in 4 Himachal seats. INC candidate Vivek Sharma won the Kutlehar seat in Himachal Pradesh defeating BJP's Davinder Kumar (Bhutto) by 5,356 votes. (ECI)

Vivek Sharma, INC candidate for Kutlehar in Himachal Pradesh.

All India Trinamool Congress candidate Reyat Hossain Sarkar won the Bhagabangola seat in West Bengal by defeating Congress' Anju Begam by 15,617 votes. (ECI)

Trinamool Congress candidate Reyat Hossain Sarkar

Cong's Vivek Sharma wins Kutlehar assembly bypoll in Himachal (PTI)

Shimla: BJP candidate from Kutlehar assembly seat Davinder Bhutto, one of the six Congress rebels, on Tuesday lost to his Congress' rival Vivek Sharma by a margin of 5,356 votes.

Sharma polled 3,68,53 votes while Bhutto managed to get 3,14,97, according to teh Election Commission data. A total of four candidates were in the fray from this seat.

Kutlehar is one of the six assembly constituencies which fell vacant after six Congress rebels voted for BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in Rajya Sabha polls and were later disqualified by the speaker for defying the whip by the Congress.

Bharat Adivasi Party's candidate Jaikrishn Patel won the Bagidora seat in Rajasthan after defeating BJP's Subhash Tamboliya by 51,434 votes. (ECI)