Bypolls: Congress bags all three assembly seats in Kerala

NEW DELHI: Continuing with its impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress-led UDF on Tuesday retained all three assembly seats where bypolls were held,routing the ruling CPM-led LDF.
The LDF suffered a blow in politically sensitive Kannur, where Congress candidate and former CPM MP A P Abdullakutty emerged victorious by a margin of 12,000 votes over CPM's M V Jayarajan.

Abdullakutty, who represented Kannur twice in parliament on a CPM ticket, was expelled from the party a few months back following serious differences with the CPM leadership, after which he joined the Congress.

Congress candidates Dominic Presentation trounced CPM's P N Sinulal in Ernakulam by over 8000 votes, while his colleague A A Shukur retained Alappuzha seat by defeating G Krishaparasad of CPI by 4000 votes.

The November 7 by-polls were necessitated by resignation of sitting Congress MLAs K Sudhakaran (Kannur), K V Thomas (Ernakulam) and K C Venugopal (Alappuzha) on getting elected to Lok Sabha.

The results showed that UDF had been able to consolidate its Lok Sabha performance of lifting 16 of the 20 seats in the state. Despite its best efforts and high voltage campaign, the LDF failed to reverse the rout it faced in Parliamentary polls. The current round of elections were seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2011 assembly polls to be preceded by the civic elections next year.

The CPM-led ruling Left Front in West Bengal appeared heading for another poll debacle after the Lok Sabha elections with the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine winning five of the 10 seats where by-elections were held last Saturday.

The combine was ahead of their Left rivals in three other constituencies, according to reports available from different counting centres.

The Left Front, which had fielded candidates in all the 10 seats, was leading in only Goalpokhar constituency. In Kalchini constituency in Jalpaiguri district, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supported Independent Wilson Champamari wrested the seat from RSP, defeating Binoy Bhushan Karket by over 6,000 votes.

TC candidates won Alipore, Bongaon, Serampore and Rajganj seats, the last being wrested from the CPM, while Congress retained Sujapur seat. CPM was trailing behind Trinamool candidate in the prestigious Belgachia East seat by over 10,000 votes after the fourth round of counting.

The seat had fallen vacant following the death of CPM stalwart and former transport minister Subash Chakraborty, who had won from the seat for seven consecutive terms. The CPM had fielded his widow Ramala Chakraborty from the seat.

BJP won Rohroo assembly seat and Congress bagged Jawali in Himachal Pradesh as results of the two by-polls were declared on Tuesday. While the Rohroo seat was held by Congress, Jawali was represented by BJP.

In Rohroo seat Khushiram Balnatah defeated Congress candidate Manjit Singh Thakur by 8,473 votes while in Jawali former state minister and Congress nominee Sujan Singh Pathania humbled BJP's Chaudhary Baldev Raj by 5,249 votes.

Byelections on Rohroo in Shimla district and Jawali in Kangra district were necessitated due to resignation of Union Minister Virbhadra Singh and BJP's Rajan Sushant respectively after they became MPs.

In Rajasthan, BJP and the ruling Congress won one seat each respectively. BJP's Ramesh Chand was declared elected from Todabhim while Basanti Meena of the Congress bagged the Salumber seat. With these wins, the Congress tally in the state assembly has gone up to 102 and the BJP strength is now 79.

Congress is leading in the two Assam assembly constituencies for which elections were held last week.

In Chhattisgarh, BJP has established an early lead over the Congress in the Vaishali Nagar assembly sea t.

In Firozdabad Lok Sabha bypoll, SP leader Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav is trailing Cong’s Raj Babbar by 28,000 votes after nine rounds while the ruling BSP was ahead in eight of the 11 assembly seats where bypolls were held last week.

BSP candidates were leading in seven assembly seats --Powayan, Isauli, Hainsar Bazar, Padrauna, Rari, Etawah and Lalitpur -- after initial six-seven rounds of counting, election department sources said. BSP candidate Shiv Prasad Yadav won from Bharthana assembly seat.

Independent candidates are leading in two seats --Kolasala and Jhansi seats while Congress nominee is leading in Lucknow, they said.

Congress is trailing in both Jhansi and Padrauna seats it held in 2007 assembly elections. Both Jhansi and Padrauna seats fell vacant after elected representatives Pradeep Jain Aditya and RPN Singh won the Lok Sabha polls.

In Jhansi, BSP candidate Kailash Sahu is leading over his nearest rival independent candidate Vijendra Vyas by over 1000 votes whereas in Padrauna, BSP candidate and its state president Swami Prasad Maurya is leading over his nearest Congress rival Mohni Devi.

In 2007 assembly elections--Samajwadi Party had won five assembly seats-- Powayan, Isauli Sonu Singh, Hainsar Bazar, Etawah and Bharthana while BJP won two -- Lucknow (West) and Kolasala seats.
Times of india