Ruling parties win 6 of 7 assembly seats that went to bypolls

HT Correspondents

AGARTALA/RANCHI/NEW DELHI/ HYDERABAD: Ruling parties across four states on Sunday won six of the seven assembly seats that went to bypolls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three of four legislative assembly constituencies where bypolls were held on June 23 in Tripura. Among the winners were chief minister Manik Saha who won the Town Bordowali seat, while Malina Debnath defeated her nearest rival, CPI(M) candidate Sailendra Chandra Nath, by 4,572 votes in Jubrajnagar.

BJP’S Swapna Das won from Surma constituency beating Independent candidate, her nearest rival, Baburam Satnami by 4,560 votes.

Former minister Sudip Roy Barman, who had switched from the BJP to Congress, won from his home turf, beating the BJP’S

Ashok Sinha by 3,163 votes. The declaration of results saw incidents of violence across Tripura, with the CPI(M) alleging that one of their party offices was ransacked by unknown miscreants.

Congress state president Birajit Sinha sustained injuries after a stone hit him on the head.

Senior police officials said that three people were injured in the clash outside the Congress bhawan, but the situation was under control. “No FIR was lodged from any side. We have started our investigation to identify culprits behind the incident,” said west district superintendent of police, Jagadish Reddy.

In Andhra Pradesh’s Atmakur, ruling YSR Congress party candidate Mekapati Vikram Reddy defeated Gundlapalli Bharat Kumar Yadav by a margin of 82,742 votes. YSRCP president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy described the victory as a reflection of the people’s confidence in the state government for its good work.

In Jharkhand, Congress’ Shilpi Neha Tirkey won the Mandar assembly bypoll, defeating the BJP’S Gangotri Kujur by 23,517 votes.

In Delhi, AAP’S Durgesh Pathak won Rajinder Nagar by-election by over 11,000 votes defeating BJP’S Rajesh Bhatia.

The seat was vacated after sitting MLA Raghav Chadha resigned and was later elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab.