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No surprises in bypoll results in 6 states, UT

In the first Lok Sabha and Assembly byelections held after demonetisation, there were no surprises across the six states and the Union Territory of Puducherry which went to the polls on Saturday.

As the ruling parties held sway, BJP and Trinamool Congress won two Lok Sabha seats each, claiming that it was a vindication of their stand on the invalidation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

In Tamil Nadu, AIADMK, whose supremo Jayalalithaa has been hospitalised for two months, retained the Thanjavur and Thirupparankundram Assembly seats and wrested the Aravakkurichi seat from DMK by margins ranging from 20,000 votes to 42,000 votes.

In Aravakkurichi, AIADMK’s V Senthil Balaji defeated DMK’s K C Palanisamy, while in Thirupparankundram, AIADMK’s A K Bose defeated DMK’s P Saravanan. In Thanjavur, AIADMK’s M Rengasamy beat DMK’s Anjugam Bhoopathy. AIADMK’s tally in the 234-member Assembly has now risen to 136, including the Speaker.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy of Congress won the bypoll to the Nellithope Assembly seat defeating AIADMK’s Om Sakthi Segar by a margin of 11,144 votes. Narayansamy had to win the bypoll and become an MLA to continue as chief minister. 

In other Assembly bypoll contests, the CPM got two Assembly seats, while Congress and Trinamool bagged one each. The bypolls were held on November 19, results of which were declared on Tuesday.

In Assam, the BJP made a clean sweep in the byelections to the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha and Baithalangso Assembly constituencies. BJP candidates Pradan Baruah and Mansingh Rongpi defeated their Congress rivals in their respective constituencies. The Lakhimpur seat fell vacant when Sarbananda Sonowal, the then Union minister for sports, resigned as a Lok Sabha member after he was elected to the state Assembly.

The BJP retained the Shahdol Lok Sabha and Nepanagar Assembly seats in the byelections in Madhya Pradesh, defeating  Congress which had campaigned on the demonetisation plank. BJP’s Gyan Singh defeated Himadri Singh of Congress by over 60,000 votes for Shahdol (ST) parliamentary seat.

In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress swept Tamluk and Coochbehar Lok Sabha constituencies by a margin of over 4.9 lakh votes, almost doubling the gap from the 2014 polls. Trinamool also won the Monteswar Assembly seat with candidates of CPM, Congress and BJP losing their deposits.

TMC candidate Dibyendu Adhikari won the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest CPM rival Mandira Panda by 4.97 lakh votes. 

The party won the Coochbehar Lok Sabha seat with its candidate Parthapratim Roy routing his nearest rival BJP’s Hemchandra Burman by a margin of 4.9 lakh votes and pushed the Left Front partner Forward Bloc to the third position. The ruling CPM in Tripura wrested Barjala (SC) Assembly seat from Congress and retained Khowai.

Former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Kalikho Pul’s wife Dasanglu Pul of BJP was declared winner from Hayuliang LAC in Anjaw district. The seat fell vacant following the suicide of Pul in August.

Interestingly, while Pul had died as a Congress MLA, and the entire Congress Legislature Party in Arunachal Pradesh – barring former chief minister Nabam Tuki – had joined the People’s Party of Arunachal, Pul’s wife was fielded as a BJP candidate. With her election, the BJP’s strength in the state Assembly has gone up to 13.