Assembly bypolls: I.N.D.I.A ahead in 11 of 13 seats; BJP, JD(U) in one each

In Punjab, AAP's Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll candidate Mohinder Bhagat heading towards victory

New Delhi: Candidates of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties — Congress, AAP, TMC and DMK  — on Saturday were leading in 11 of the 13 Assembly seats where bypolls were held earlier this week, according to the counting trends on the Election Commission (EC) website.

While the BJP was in the lead in Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur, its partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the JD(U), was leading in Rupauli in Bihar.

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Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.

In Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll candidate Mohinder Bhagat appears to be heading for a victory from the seat as he was leading by more than 23,000 votes against his nearest rival and Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, according to the EC.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Krishna Kalyani, Mukut Nami Adhikari, Madhuparna Tahkur and Supti Pandey are in the lead in assembly bypolls in Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda and Maniktala in West Bengal.

In Raiganj, the BJP is in second place and behind by 21,393 votes; in Ranaghat Dakshin, the party is trailing by 2,139 votes; in Bagda by 8,278 votes and in Maniktala by 3,041 votes, according to the EC website.

In Himachal Pradesh, Congress candidates — Chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s wife Kamlesh Tahkur and Hardeep Singh Bawa — are in the lead in Dehra and Nalagarh while BJP’s Ashish Sharma is ahead in Hamirpur. Kamlesh Thakur was leading by 6,115 votes against BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh in Dehra, Congress’ Pushpinder Verma was trailing by 67 votes against BJP’s Ashish Sharma in Hamirpur and Congress’ Hardeep Singh Bawa was leading by 3,078 votes against the BJP’s KL Thakur in Nalagarh.

The Congress’ candidates for Badrinath and Manglaur bypolls — Lakhpat Singh Butola and Qazi Nizamuddin — in Uttarakhand were leading in both seats, according to the poll panel.

BJP’s Rajendra Bhandari was trailing by 1,161 votes in Badrinath, while in Manglaur, BSP’s Ubaidur Rahman was at second spot and BJP’s Kartar Singh Bhadana at third.

In Madhya Pradesh’s Amarwar seat, Congress’ Dheeran Shah Invati was ahead of BJP’s Kamslesh Pratap Shahi by 4,048 votes, while in Bihar, JD(U)’s Kaladhar Prasad Mandal was leading with 5,038 votes against Independent candidate Shankar Singh. In Tamil Nadu, DMK’s Anniyur Siva was ahead of PMK’s Anbumani C by 10,734 votes in the Vikravandi Assembly seat.