Bypolls: BJP wrests Rampur and Azamgarh from SP, Congress wins one seat each in Jharkhand, Tripura

In a big jolt to Samajwadi Party, the BJP has wrested the Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seats from it in the bypolls whose results were announced on Sunday.

In Punjab the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat –vacated by chief minister Bhagwant Mann-- to Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), but it retained the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat in Delhi.

In Tripura Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won the Agartala seat while BJP’s Chief Minister Manik Saha too won. In last assembly elections, Congress had drawn a blank in the north-eastern state.

The Congress also won in Jharkhand where its candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey defeated BJP's Gangotri Kujur by margin of 23,517 votes on the Mandar seat.

In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSR Congress emerged victorious on Atmakuru Assembly seat.

Counting of votes was held on Sunday for the June 23 by-election to three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats spread across five states and Delhi.

In Uttar Pradesh, ruling BJP candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi won the Rampur parliamentary seat by a margin of over 42,000 votes. Lodhi defeated SP's Asim Raja, considered close to senior SP leader Azam Khan who won the seat in 2019 but vacated it after being elected to the assembly.

In Azamgarh, also a pocket borough of the SP and vacated by party chief Akhilesh Yadav after his election to the state assembly, BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua' defeated Dharmendra Yadav of SP by a margin of 8,679 votes.

In Delhi's Rajinder Nagar, AAP's Durgesh Pathak defeated BJP candidate Rajesh Bhatia by a margin of over 11,000 votes, officials said.

The party, however, suffered a jolt in Punjab as SAD (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat defeating AAP's Gurmail Singh by a margin of 5,822 votes.

The defeat came just three months after AAP registered a resounding victory in the assembly elections when it won 92 of the 117 assembly segments.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and candidate Mann, 77, has been elected from Sangrur nearly 23 years after winning from the seat in 1999.

The BJP consolidated its position in Tripura winning three of the four assembly seats. Chief Minister Manik Saha secured 17,181 votes, which is 51.63% of the total votes polled. The Trinamool Congress, which was looking to make inroads in the north-eastern state, performed dismally with its candidates losing deposits in all the seats.

Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won the Agartala seat by a margin of 3,163 votes. He secured 17,241 votes, which is 43.46% of the total votes polled.

At least 19 people including Tripura PCC chief Birajit Sinha were injured in a clash between Congress and BJP supporters in front of Congress Bhavan in the state capital after the results of the by-elections for four assembly seats were declared.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the people.

The CPI(M) lost its citadel of Jubarajnagar to the BJP by a margin of 4,572 votes. BJP candidate Malina Debnath got 18,769 votes (51.83%), while CPI(M)'s Shailendra Chandra Nath secured 14,197 votes (39.2%).

In Surma, BJP's Swapna Das won by a margin of 4,583 votes, securing a total of 16,677 votes (42.34%). Her nearest rival Baburam Satnami of TIPRA Motha got 12,094 votes (30.7%).

The ruling YSR Congress retained the Atmakuru Assembly seat in SPS Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh by a huge margin of 82,888 votes. YSRC's Mekapati Vikram Reddy secured 1,02,241 votes against his rival G Bharat Kumar Yadav of the BJP, who managed to get only 19,353.

(With agencies inputs)