In the first major INDIA Alliance versus NDA battle, the Opposition parties won four of the seven assembly seats where bypolls were held earlier this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party bagged three seats – two in Tripura and one in Uttarakhand. The bypolls were held in seven assembly constituencies spanning across six states and the results were declared today.

The seven seats where bypolls were held include Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura.

In Jharkhand’s Dumri, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha or JMM’s Bebi Devi defeated her AJSU rival Yashodha Devi by a margin of 17153 votes. Debi Devi received 100317 votes against Yashodha Devi’s 83164 votes.  The JMM is among the 28 Opposition parties who have come together to form the INDIA- Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance.

Samajwadi Party retains Ghosi, terms it victory of INDIA alliance

In UP’s Ghosi, another INDIA partner Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party defeated BJP by 42759 votes. Samajwadi Party’s Sudhakar Singh garnered 124427 votes against his BJP rival Dara Singh Chauhan’s 81668 votes. The Samajwadi Party has termed Ghosi results a victory for INDIA alliance.

Ghosi seat was being held by Dara Singh Chauhan before he quit the Samajwadi Party to join the BJP. However, he could not retain the seat in bypolls despite high profile election campaign. Congress didn’t field its candidate and extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate.

Puthuppally goes to Congress, TMC grabs Dhupguri

In Kerala’s Puthuppally, Congress leader Chandy Oomen defeated his CPI-M rival Jaick C Thomas by a margin of 37719 votes. Puthuppally has been a Congress stronghold and the seat was held by former CM Oomen Chandi until his death recently.

In West Bengal’s Dhupguri, BJP candidate Tapasi Roy was defeated by Nirmal Chandra Roy of CM Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. Nirmal received 97613 votes against Tapasi Roy’s 93304 votes. Reacting to the victory, CM Mamata Banerjee said that people of Dhupghuri have reposed their faith in TMC as the seat was held by the BJP.

BJP retains Uttarakhand, wins both seats in Tripura

In Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar, BJP succeeded in retaining the seat and its candidate Parwati Dass defeated Congress’ Basant Kumar by 30842 votes in a close contest.

Tripura was another success for the BJP as the party won both – Boxanagar and Dhanpur by massive margin of votes. In Boxanagar, BJP candidate Tafajjal Hossain defeated his Left rival Mizan Hossain by 30237 votes. BJP’s Bindu Debnath won the Dhanpur bypolls by defeating CPI-M’s Kaushik Chanda.