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In what was being touted as the first head-to-head encounter between INDIA and NDA post the Lok Sabha elections, it is the opposition bloc that has come out on top. In the by-poll elections on 13 assembly seats spread across seven states, INDIA had secured six seats and was leading in four while NDA settled for two seats, till the updates came in last. The voting was held on Wednesday (July 10) and the results started pouring in early on Saturday.
The 13 Assembly seats that went to polls were Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh; Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Maniktala and Bagda in West Bengal; Manglaur and Badrinath in Uttarakhand; Jalandhar West in Punjab; Rupauli in Bihar; Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu and Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh.
According to Election Commission of India (ECI) data, Indian National Congress' (INC) Hardeep Singh Bawa and Ashish Sharma had won from the Nalagarh and Hamirpur seats respectively in HP. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) emerged victorious on three seats while Supti Pandey led from the Maiktala seat.
In Uttarakhand, INC was leading on the all-important Badrinath seat with Lakhpat Singh Butola whole Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin also maintaining the lead in Manglaur.
In Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party secured the Jalandhar West seat while independent candidate Shankar Singh led the Janta Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) candidate from Rupauli in Bihar.
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP's Kamlesh Pratap Shah led Congress' Dheeran Shah by little less than 2000 votes. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK continued the winning run with its candidate Anniyur Siva leading from Vikravandi.
General elections picture
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone won 240 seats which was 32 short of the majority mark of 272. However, with alliance partners under the NDA umbrella, the BJP managed to stitch up 293 seats and formed the government.
Meanwhile, Congress-led INDIA bloc clinched 232 seats and punctured NDA's rather ambitious hopes of crossing the 400-seat mark.
Although Narendra Modi took oath as the prime minister for a third straight term, he had to contend with a bloated cabinet in order to satiate the alliance partners. The results of the by-polls are expected to be another blow for the BJP election machinery which prides itself on winning polls relentlessly.
