Congress wins 11, BJP 17 out of 51 Assembly seats in bypolls across 17 states

Five months after its landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP on Thursday won 17 Assembly seats in the bypolls held in 51 Assembly constituencies across 17 states.

The Congress, which was decimated in the general elections in May, bagged 11 seats in the by-elections held on October 21.

The Congress secured victory in three of the four seats in Punjab - Phagwara, Mukerian and Jalalabad - defeating two BJP and one Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidates, respectively. The SAD won the Dakha seat.

In Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, 6 seats were at stake, out of which the Congress wrested the Tharad seat from BJP while retaining Bayad and Radhanpur seats. In Radhanpur, Congress candidate Raghubhai Merajbhai Desai defeated Alpesh Thakor, who had left the Congress to join the BJP.

The ruling BJP won Kheralu, Lunawada and Amraiwadi seats.

In Rajasthan, Congress's Rita Choudhary defeated BJP's Sushila Singra from Mandawa seat but lost the Khinwsar seat where Narayan Beniwal of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party defeated Congress’ Harendra Midha.

The Congress registered victory in Chhattisgarh's Chitrakot seat where Rajman Venjam defeated the BJP's Lachhuram Kashyap. It also won Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua constituency where it fielded Kantilal Bhuria against BJP's Bhanu Bhuria.

The Congress also won two of the five seats in Kerala - Ernakulam and Aroor - while its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League won the Manjeshwar seat. The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist secured victory in Konni and Vattiyoorkavu seats.

Congress's A. Johnkumar defeated All India N.R. Congress's Bouvaneswarane with a margin of 7,170 votes in Puducherry's Kamaraj Nagar.

In Uttar Pradesh, where by-elections were held for 11 Assembly seats, the BJP won 7, its ally Apna Dal got 1, and the Samajwadi Party won 3 seats.

The Congress lost the Gangoh seat by a whisker in disputable circumstances as its candidate Nooman Masood lost to BJP’s Kirat Singh by around 5,000 votes.

Noman Masood had been leading the vote count since morning, but as the last round neared, he, his agents and media persons were asked to leave the counting area. Later, the Returning Officer declared BJP's Keerat Singh elected.

The Congress party has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission regarding the same and have demanded recounting of votes.

The ruling BJP won the Gangoh, Iglas, Lucknow Cantt, Govind Nagar, Manikpur, Balha and Ghosi. The candidate of its ally Apna Dal won from Pratapgarh.

Samajwadi Party's Tazeen Fatma, a Rajya Sabha member and wife of senior party leader and Lok Sabha member Azam Khan, won from the Rampur seat, defeating BJP's Bharat Bhushan.

Samajwadi Party's Gaurav Kumar secured victory in Zaidpur seat, defeating BJP's Ambrish, and the party's Subhash Rai pipped the BSP's Chhaya Verma to the post in Jalalpur.

In Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal won the Simri-Bakhtiarpur and Belhar seats, the AIMIM's Qamrul Hoda won in Kishanganj and the ruling Janata Dal-United in the Nathnagar constituency. Independent Karnjeet Singh alias Vyas Singh won in Daraundha.

In Assam, the BJP won the Ratabari, Rangapara and Sonari seats in Assam while the All India United Democratic Front won the Jania seat.

The BJP won Martamrumtek (BL) and Gangtok (BL) in Sikkim while the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha secured the Poklok Kamrang seat.

The BJP secured victory from Himachal Pradesh's Dharamshala and Pachhad seats where it had fielded Vishal Nehria and Reena Kashyap, respectively, defeating an Independent and Congress candidate.

Independent candidate Chakat Aboh won from Khonsa West constituency in Arunachal Pradesh's defeating Independent candidate Azet Homtok by a margin of 1,887 votes.

The United Democratic Party won Meghalaya's Shella seat while the Biju Janata Dal retained Odisha's Bijepur constituency with Rita Sahu defeating the BJP's Sanat Kumar Gartia.

AIADMK's Muthamilselvan R. and Narayanan V. defeated DMK's Pugazhenthi N. in Vikravandi and Congress's Manoharan R. in Nanguneri seat, respectively, in Tamil Nadu.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi's Saidi Reddy Shanampudi defeated Congress's Nalamada Padmavathi Reddy with a margin of 42,485 votes in Telangana's Huzurnagar.