Anxious moments for AAP, SP as bypoll counting continues

The counting for the bypolls to three Lok Sabha constituencies are giving anxious moments to the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, as the trends showed opponents ahead of it.

AAP's Gurmail Singh is trailing by nearly 7,000 votes in Sangrur, the seat vacated by Bhagwant Mann after he was chosen as Punjab Chief Minister. It is a prestige battle for the AAP as it is facing immense pressure in Punjab, where the law and order situation is in disarray.

For the Samajwadi Party, trouble seems likely in both Azamgarh and Rampur, its sitting seats, its sitting seats, where its candidates Dharmendra Yadav and Mohd Asim Raja are trailing by 1,935 and 19,552 votes, respectively.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was representing Azamgarh before quit to be an MLA in Uttar Pradesh while Azam Khan, who was an MP from his fiefdom, Rampur had resigned following his election to the UP Assembbly.

BJP has fielded Bhojpuri actor Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirauha', who had lost to Akhilesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Azamgarh while it has put Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi as its nominee in Rampur.

In what is seen as a sigh of relief for Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, Durgesh Pathak is leading comfortably by nearly 11,000 in the Rajinder Nagar seat in Delhi Assembly bypoll against BJP's Rajesh Bhatia. Congress continued with its dismal performance bagging just over 1,651 with just one round of counting to go.

In Tripura, Congress managed to win one Assembly seat while BJP bagged the other three including that of Chief Minister Manik Saha's Town Bardowali where he won by 6,104 votes. Congress came second in two while it did not fight the Surma seat. CPI(M) too came second in two while it left Town Bardowali to its Left ally Forward Bloc.

Sudip Roy Barman, who quit BJP to join Congress, won Agartala for the Grand Old Party. BJP won in Jubarajnagar and Surma besides Saha's Town Badowali.

One of the highlights of the bypolls were the dismal performance by the Trinamool Congress, which is hoping to usurp the space of the Congress. However, the party despite its high decibel campaign could garner only 3,933 votes -- 847, 986, 1020 and 1080 -- from the four seats it contested while losing deposit in all.

As expected, YSR Congress won comfortably in Andhra Pradesh's Armakur seat by a whopping margin of 82,888 votes. YSR Congress' M Vikram Reddy, whose brother and then Industries Minister M Gautam Reddy's death led to bypolls, polled 1.02 lakh votes while his nearest BJP candidate Bharath Kumar Gundlapalli got just 19,332 votes.

In Jharkhand, Congress' Shilpi Neha Tirkey is leading by 6,085 votes in Mandar seat against BJP's Gangotri Kujur.