NEW DELHI (TIP): The ruling BJP in Gujarat has swept five of the six seats — two Lok Sabha and three assembly seats — to which bypolls were held last Sunday, while the JD(U) in Bihar is all set to suffer a setback in Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat. BJP is also leading in the sixth assembly seat of Dhoraji, which fell vacant after Vithhal Radadia left Congress to join BJP and resigned as an MLA.

BJP candidate Pravin Mankadia is fighting against Congress rival Haribhai Patel on the seat. The party is leading by 6,803 votes after 26 rounds of counting. All the six seats were earlier with the Congress party. The BJP registered a significant win in the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat where Vithhal Radadia, who was caught brandishing his gun at a toll booth last year when he was a Congress MP and later crossed over BJP, won the seat with over 1,28,000 votes.

The Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Mukesh Gadhvi, was won by Haribhai Chaudhary of BJP with the margin of more than 71,000 votes over his Congress rival Krishna Gadhvi, wife of Mukesh Gadhvi. BJP’s Jayesh Radadia, who also defected from Congress with his father Vithhal Radadia, won the Jetpur assembly seat defeating Jagdish Pambhar of the Congress. Nimisha Suthar of the BJP won the Morva Hadaf (ST) assembly seat by defeating Congress candidate Bhupendrasinh Khant.

The seat was held by Bhupendrasinh’s mother Savita Khant, who died during the counting of assembly elections last December. Former state minister and BJP leader Kiritsinh Rana won Limbadi seat by defeating Congress candidate Satish Patel. The byelection was necessitated after Congress MP Soma Patel, who won Limbadi assembly seat too, resigned as an MLA. Congress had fielded his son Satish Patel on the seat.

Trinamool wins Howrah seat

In Bengal, Trinamool Congress candidate Prasun Banerjee won the Howrah Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival, CPM candidate Sridip Bhattacherjee, by over 27,000 votes. Though official results were still to be declared, Election Commission sources said that Prasun Banerjee secured 4,26,273 votes and Sridip Bhattacherjee 3,99,258 votes. Congress candidate Sanatan Mukherjee was in third spot polling 96,727 votes. The sources said that counting of 300 votes in one EVM which developed a technical malfunction would be taken up before the official declaration of the result.

The seat fell vacant following the death of TMC MP Ambika Banerjee. Senior TMC leader and panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters that the poll result would give a boost to the party before next month’s crucial panchayat elections. The result prove that people reposed their faith on the performance of Mamata Banerjee government in the past two years, he also said.