Blow to Modi, Cong wins in BJP bastion

Courtesy: Indian Express

After more than 21 years, the Gujarat Congress today wrested the Mansa Assembly constituency from the ruling BJP. The victory assumes significance as the constituency is considered a BJP bastion and its campaign was closely planned and monitored by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who also held one of his Sadbhavana Mission fasts here. Besides, it was the last crucial before the Assembly elections at the end of this year.

At least 75 per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise and the Congress’s Babusinh Thakor defeated the BJP’s Dashrath Patel by a comfortable margin of 8,182 votes. 

The bypoll had been necessitated by the death former speaker Mangaldas Patel. The loss of Mansa is a second blow to the ruling BJP in north Gujarat — its traditional stronghold — after having lost to the Congress in the newly constituted Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation in April last year. 

It is home to some powerful politicians such as the controversial former minister of state for home Amit Shah. At the time of the election, the BJP had posted ministers at polling booths. 

Claiming that the Sadbhavana fast had not been for political gain but to “spread the message of unity and peace”, state BJP president RC Faldu blamed the defeat on the absence of a three-pronged fight. “This time it was between us and the Congress. Our voters were with us but votes meant for independents went to the Congress. So we lost,” he said. 

The man especially happy would be Shankersinh Vaghela, the party’s election campaign committee in-charge. He had also led the party’s Sardar Sandesh Yatra from Mansa on January 4 and his skills as a campaigner had been at stake before the Assembly elections. 

“Mansa is considered the epicentre of north Gujarat politics. By-elections are mostly won by the ruling party. But here they have lost,” said Vaghela today. 

UPA partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) sought to share credit in the Congress victory. Its Gujarat unit president Jayant Patel stressed that it was about time the Congress understood the importance of the party in defeating the BJP. “Its leaders should create an environment conducive to taking the NCP into confidence for giving a united fight to the BJP in the Assembly elections.”

Latest by-election results from different state assemblies

Courtesy: NDTV

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Pro-Telegana TRS, which is K Chandrasekhar Rao's party,  does very well in Andhra Pradesh (six of the seven assembly seats that voted are in the Telangana region).  Congress punished by voters for centre's refusal to sanction a separate Telangana state

 In Gujarat, BJP loses Mansa assembly seat to Congress, worrying for the BJP since state elections are just months away.

In Karnataka, BJP loses Udipi Chikmanglur which was former constituency of chief minister Sadananda Gowda.  The BJP's tallest leader BS Yeddyurappa was not allowed to campaign here by his party because it was worried the corruption charges against him would turn voters against the party.

RSS warns BJP over Karnataka situation?

Courtesy: Times of India

Sources on Wednesday (March 21) said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has conveyed to the BJP that if Yeddyurappa is reinstated as the Karnataka Chief Minister, It could be suicidal. Sources also added that the RSS has asked the BJP to get its act together in Karnataka and Uttarakhand where they lost by small margin to the Congress. 

Yesterday a high level meeting was held between the RSS top brass and BJP President Nitin Gadkari. Also present at the meeting was BJP’s Ramlal. At the meeting, the RSS made it very clear to the BJP that the infighting within the party in various states was a cause for concern and the BJP needs to look into the matter. In fact the RSS also said that the BJP lost in Uttarakhand only because of infighting and the Karnataka government is also heading down the same route. 

A special mention was also made by the RSS of the fact that if the BJP did decide to reinstate Yeddyurappa as the Chief Minister it would be a suicidal step for the party. 

This can be seen as a clear warning by the RSS to the BJP to get its act together as far as infighting within the party is concerned. 

Former Karnataka Chief Minister himself today finally spoke to the media after being holed up in a resort on the outskirt of Bangalore with several of his supporters, threatening the BJP and making demands. Yeddyurappa said that the only reason he is holed up in the resort with 70 of his party MLAs is because he is trying to prove a point to the party leadership. 

As far as the BJP’s central leadership is concerned, dealing with the current situation will be tough. The party will have to do a balancing act because they do know that Yeddyurappa does hold some aces up his sleeve and he does have the support of the MLAs. Yeddyurappa is also from the Lingayat community, which is an 18 per cent vote base for the BJP in Karnataka. All these factors will have to be considered by the BJP before making any decisions on the situation in Karnataka. 

Ultimately it is Yeddyurappa’s blackmailing tactics which have put off the BJP and RSS leadership.

AIADMK leading in Sankarankoil by-poll

Courtesy: DNA

V Muthuselvi of Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK was on Wednesday way ahead of his nearest DMK rival in the Sankarankoil assembly constituency by-election with an impressive lead of over 25,570 votes, the Election Commission said. 

At the end of the seventh round of counting, Muthuselvi had polled 40,452 votes. He was followed by DMK's J Jawahar Suryakumar (12,881 votes), MDMK's T Sadan Thirumalaikumar (7,119 votes) and DMDK's K Muthukumar (5,447 votes).

The March 18 by-election had seen brisk polling with over 75 percent of the 206,087 voters casting their ballots.

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of the AIADMK's C. Karuppasamy in October 2011 due to ill health.

Odisha bypoll results: Ruling BJD candidate Raja Swain all set to win

Courtesy: Odhisha Today

Athagarh (Odisha): Ruling Bjd candidate Ranendra Pratap Swain all set to win the Athagarh bypoll as Raja Swain took a health lead of more than  30 thousand over his nearest rival, Congress party till the 10th round of counting that began at 8 am on Wednesday.

The results are expected to be declared shortly.

Mr. Raja Swain, three time legislator from Athagarh constituency  has been leading steadily since the counting began at 8 am this morning.

It may be noted here that Swain could not contest the 2009 assembly poll from Athagarh as his nomination paper was rejected. The former minister challanged the rejection in the Orissa High Court which declared the election of Independent MLA Ramesh Chandra Rout as null and void.

Rout challenged the Orissa High Court judgement in the Supreme Court which last month upheld the earlier order. The Supreme Court also directed the Election Commission of India to conduct by-elections for Athagarh.

Andhra Bypolls: TRS leads in four constituencies, Congress one

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Wednesday established early leads on four assembly seats while YSR Congress party is leading in Kovur, the only seat it contested. Former minister and independent candidate N Janardhana Reddy was ahead of his rivals in Nagarkurnool while the ruling Congress is leading in Mahabubnagar. 

The by-elections to seven assembly seats, six of them in Telangana, were held Sunday. The counting of votes began amid tight security at 8am Wednesday.

TRS established early leads over ruling Congress party and main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Kamareddy, Kollapur, Adilabad and Station Ghanpur constituencies.

The by-elections were a result of vacancies that arose due to the resignations of two legislators of the Congress party and four rebels of the TDP. The Congress party is leading in Mahabubnagar, where the bypoll was necessitated by the death of one independent legislator, who was associate member of Congress party.

Two legislators each of Congress and TDP had resigned on Telangana issue and contested as TRS candidates this time. Janardhana Reddy too quit TDP on a separate issue and contested as an independent supported by TRS.

Another TRS rebel N Prasanna Kumar Reddy contested as YSR Congress party candidate in Kovur in Nellore district. The fledgling party stayed away from by-elections in Telangana.

UDF candidate wins Piravom bypoll in Kerala

Courtesy: The Hindu

United Democratic Front candidate Anoop Jacob won the by-election from the Piravom Assembly constituency in Kerala on Wednesday with a margin of 12,070 votes. 

Mr. Anoop Jacob (Kerala Congress-Jacob) bagged 82,756 votes against 70,686 votes secured by his nearest rival and Left Democratic Front candidate M. J. Jacob (CPI-M). BJP candidate K.R. Rajagopal ended up a distant third with 3241 votes. (The Congress-led United Democratic Front is the ruling Front in Kerala and the bypoll result comes as a boost to the Front which has only a slender majority in the Assembly). 

In the 2011 general elections, Mr. Anoop’s father T. M. Jacob had won from the constituency with a margin of just 157 votes. Anoop Jacob stepped in after the death of his father, then Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, on October 31 last year. He put up quite an impressive show by raising the winning margin of his father.. 

Mr. Anoop Jacob has been leading steadily since the counting began at 8 am this morning but for a slight advantage of 300-odd votes for Mr. M. J. Jacob at one point. The Left Democratic Front candidate trailed in most of the panchayats. The margin climbed to more than 10,000 within one and a half hours into the counting. 

The first round of counting began with the service ballots. Out of 323 service ballots issued by the returning officer, 316 had been returned. On completion of the first round, Anoop Jacob had a slender lead of 127 votes. He secured 7,567 votes as against M. J. Jacob’s 7,438 votes. BJP candidate had 578 votes at this point. 

Halfway through the counting, Anoop had a lead of 4,440 votes. He had secured 42,419 votes as against 37,979 for M. J. Jacob, when counting votes from 71 booths of the 135 booths were completed by 9 am. 

Television channels started live coverage of counting as early as 7 am when the officials took their positions at the 14 tables set up for counting at the Muvattupuzha Nirmala Junior School; and those glued to the television sets were expecting a tight competition since the contest was between T.M. Jacob and M.J. Jacob last time. 

However, the trend soon became evident and the UDF supporters broke into celebrations straight away. The decisive victory at Piravom will stand the UDF in good stead as the focus now moves to Neyyantikkara, where the CPI (M) Member of Assembly R. Selvaraj resigned amidst the election campaign here. 

LS bypoll: Setback for BJP, Congress wins in Karnataka

Courtesy: Indian Express

In a setback to the ruling BJP in Karnataka, the Congress today wrested the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat from it with party candidate K Jayaprakash Hegde emerging victorious in the bypoll by a margin of 45,724 votes.

Hegde, a former minister, defeated his nearest BJP rival V Sunil Kumar in a loss of face to BJP as the constituency was represented by D V Sadananda Gowda before becoming the Chief Minister. 

Hegde secured 3,98,723 votes as against 3,52,999 by Sunil Kumar. 

The electoral loss for BJP comes at time when the party is in a turmoil following the revolt led by B S Yeddyurappa for his reinstatement as chief minister.