There’s some good news after a long time for the Congress on the electoral front. The party is leading the BJP in two assembly seats in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, respectively, where by-elections were held on Tuesday. The BJP, the main rival of the Congress in these seats, also lost by-elections in other two assembly seats and was trailing in one Lok Sabha seat.
While Asansol in West Bengal was the lone Lok Sabha seat that went to polls, the four assembly were Ballygunge in West Bengal, Khairagarh in Chhattisgarh, Bochahan in Bihar, and Kolhapur North in Maharashtra.
Congress leads in Chhattisgarh, M’rashtra
In Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh assembly seat, Congress candidate Yashoda Verma was leading over BJP’s Komal Janghel by over 14,000 votes by the end of the 14th round of counting. The election had seen a high 78 per cent voting on April 12. The seat had fallen vacant following the death of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Devvrat Singh.
Kolhapur North assembly seat in Maharashtra too saw BJP’s Satyajit Shivaji Kadam — nephew of party spokesperson Dhananjay Mahadik – trailing to Congress’ Jayashree Jadhav by over 18,000 votes, according to latest reports. Elections became necessary in Kolhapur North assembly seat after sitting Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav died of Covid in December last year. The Congress is a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state.
RJD wins Bochahan assembly seat
In Bihar’s Bochahan assembly seat, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Amar Paswan defeated BJP’s Baby Kumari by 36,653 votes. The bypoll to the Bochahan assembly seat in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur was necessitated by the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who had won on the ticket of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) of Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahani.
TMC on top
In Asansol, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) candidate Shatrughan Sinha was leading by over 3 lakh votes against BJP’s Agnimitra Paul. In Ballygunge assembly seat, TMC’s Babul Supriyo — who had left the BJP and resigned his Lok Sabha seat from Asansol, where Shatrughan is leading today – defeated his nearest rival, Left Front’s Saira Shah Halim by 19,904 votes. BJP’s Keya Ghosh was pushed to the third position. The TMC won this seat in the 2021 assembly elections, but its sitting MLA Subrata Mukherjee died in November last year, necessitating by-elections.
(With agency inputs)