New Delhi: While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the ruling party in Punjab, was dealt a blow in the bypolls held in chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s former Lok Sabha constituency of Sangrur, in Delhi, it had something to cheer about as its candidate won from the Rajender Nagar seat in the capital.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept up the two remaining Lok Sabha seats as well as three seats in the Tripura assembly, shoring up its position in the Northeastern state.
Results of the bypolls in three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats, spread across five states and Delhi and held on June 23, were announced on Sunday, June 26.
Counting of votes began at 8 am on Sunday morning and while results have been coming in from states, the Election Commission is yet to declare the official results.
Sangrur
The Sangrur seat was one of three parliamentary seats up for grabs in the current bypolls. The seat had been won by AAP leader Bhagwant Mann in 2019 and became vacant after he was elected chief minster of Punjab in the assembly elections earlier this year.
Despite Mann winning by a margin of over 1 lakh votes in 2019, the seat went to Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann, a hardline Sikh candidate who has not won an election since 1999, when he had won from Sangrur itself.
While Simranjit Mann won by a narrow margin of 5,822 votes, it nevertheless dealt a huge blow to the AAP, which had swept the assembly elections in the state only three months ago.
SAD (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann receiving his Certificate of Election after winning the bypolls to the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat on Sunday, June 26. Photo: PTI
Also read: Sangrur Bypoll: Setback For Ruling AAP As Sikh Hardliner Trumps Party Candidate
Rampur
The Rampur Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh was won by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi, who secured a win over the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Mohammad Asim Raja by a margin of over 42,000 votes.
The seat had been won by SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan in the 2019 parliamentary election and had been vacated when Khan was elected to the assembly.
Raja is considered a close companion of Khan’s, who was recently released from prison last month after having been in custody for 27 months for being named in around 88 cases dealing with land-grabbing and the like.
Also read: Who’s Afraid of Azam Khan? Of 87 FIRs Pending, 84 Filed Since Yogi Became UP CM
Azamgarh
In the third and final Lok Sabha seat, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, the SP was, once again, dealt a shock defeat at the hands of the BJP, with SP candidate Dharmendra Yadav narrowly losing to the BJP’s Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’’ by 8,679 votes.
Azamgarh would have been considered a foregone conclusion for the SP before the polls since party chief Akhilesh Yadav had won from there in 2019 before vacating the seat after being elected to the state assembly.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath credited the BJP’s “double-engine” government at the centre and the state with ensuring a “double victory” for the party in the polls.
“The results of by-elections have given a signal about the outcome of the 2024 general elections,” the chief minister was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Rajinder Nagar
Despite the party’s surprising loss on the Sangrur seat, the AAP managed to retain the Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency in Delhi as party candidate Durgesh Pathak managed to defeat the BJP’s Rajesh Bhatia by over 11,000 votes.
Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to thank the people of Delhi for the party’s win in the constituency, saying that, “The people defeated their (opposition’s) dirty politics and appreciated our good work”.
राजेंद्र नगर के लोगों का दिल से आभार
दिल्ली के लोगों के इस अथाह स्नेह और प्रेम का मैं आभारी हूँ। यही हमें और मेहनत एवं सेवा करने की प्रेरणा देता है
लोगों ने उनकी गंदी राजनीति को हराया और हमारे अच्छे काम को सराहा
शुक्रिया राजेंद्र नगर, शुक्रिया दिल्ली #AAPsweepsRajinderNagar
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 26, 2022
Four seats in Tripura
Of the four seats up for grabs in the Northeastern state, the ruling BJP managed to shore up its position by winning three of them.
Chief minister Manik Saha managed to win from Bardowali, securing 51.63% of all votes polled (17,181).
“The people who voted for me, I thank them. This is the victory of BJP workers. I expected the margin to be a bit more. However, the results prove the understanding between the CPI(M) and Congress. We will work accordingly in the future, but people did not take this understanding in a good way,” Saha told reporters.
The CPI(M) lost its stronghold of Jubarajnagar to the BJP by a margin of 4,572 votes with BJP candidate Malina Debnath securing 18,769 votes (51.83%) compared to the CPI(M)’s Shailendra Chandra Nath, who won 14,197 votes (39.2%).
In Surma, the BJP’s Swapna Das won by a margin of 4,583 votes, securing a total of 16,677 votes (42.34%). Her nearest rival was Baburam Satnami of TIPRA Motha, who got 12,094 votes (30.7%).
The TMC, which was looking to make inroads in the northeastern state, performed dismally with its candidates losing their deposits in all the seats.
Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won the Agartala seat by a margin of 3,163 votes. He secured 17,241 votes (43.46%) of the total votes polled.
Violence broke out during the day outside the Congress Bhavan in state capital Agartala as Congress and BJP supporters clashed shortly after the results in the state were declared. Sporadic violence was reported from other parts of the state as well.
At least 19 people, including Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Birajit Sinha were injured in the clash.
The police even resorted to tear gas to disperse the crowd.
According to a report by the Indian Express, the Congress alleged that BJP workers stabbed an activist of the Congress party and pelted stones at its state headquarters.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to express his disapproval, alleging that “BJP goons” were behind the attack.
I strongly condemn the vicious attack on our leaders & workers by BJP goons following @INCIndia’s win in the Agartala bypoll.
The people are with us. Shameful that the police stood as mute spectators instead of stopping the attack.
These BJP goons must be brought to justice. https://t.co/8Kul4zBswK
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 26, 2022
Atmakuru
The ruling YSR Congress retained the Atmakuru assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh, with party candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy winning by a whopping 82,888 votes.
Reddy is the younger brother of Mekapati Goutham Reddy, the former Andhra industries minister and the last MLA from Atmakuru, who passed away in February this year.
He is also the son of Mekapati Rajmohan Reddy, a four-time Lok Sabha MP from Nellore.
Reddy secured 1,02,241 votes compared to his rival, the BJP’s G. Bharat Kumar Yadav, who managed to win only 19,353 votes.
Mandar
Congress candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey won from Jharkhand’s Mandar seat, defeating BJP’s Gangotri Kujur by margin of 23,517 votes.
