Bypoll results takeaways: BJP breaches SP bastions in UP; setback for AAP in Punjab | India News

NEW DELHI: It was a big boost for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and setback for AAP in Punjab as the results for bypolls held in three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats across five states and Delhi were announced on Sunday.
Here are the key takeaways from the results …
Lok Sabha bypolls: BJP dominates UP, setback for AAP in Punjab
The BJP managed to wrest both the Lok Sabha seats in UP — Rampur and Azamgarh — from Samajwadi Party while the Aam Aadmi Party, which won handsomely in the recent Punjab polls, lost Sangrur to SAD (A). The seat was held by chief minister Bhagwant Mann.
Live updates: Bypoll results
Uttar Pradesh
The twin victories for the saffron party in Uttar Pradesh will come as a shot in the arm for the ruling Yogi Adityanath-led dispensation as both Rampur and Azamgarh are considered Samajwadi Party’s bastions.
Rampur Lok Sabha seat was vacated by senior leader Azam Khan and Azamgarh Lok Sabha seat was vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi won the Rampur parliamentary bypoll by a comfortable margin of nearly 42,000 votes over nearest rival SP’s Asim Raja.

The constituency had witnessed a direct fight between Lodhi and Raja as BSP didn’t field any candidate.
The victory in Rampur will be a huge boost for the saffron party since it the SP was considered favourites to win the bypolls here.

The Rampur election was more on communal lines as there are around 10 lakh Muslim voters out of total 17 lakh and the rest are Hindus, including around 1.5 lakh Jatavs and around 50,000 Yadavs.
In Azamgarh, BJP candidate and Bhojpuri film star Dinesh Yadav Nirahua defeated SP’s Dharmendra Yadav by just under 10,000 votes.

Dharmendra Yadav is the cousin of former CM Akhilesh Yadav, who previously held the seat.
Notably, Nirahua had lost to Akhilesh in the 2019 elections.
Moreover, unlike in Rampur, Azamgarh witnessed a close three-way fight between BJP, SP and BSP.
In fact, BSP candidate Guddu Jamali bagged nearly 30% of the total votes. This is a clear signal that the Mayawati-led party may have ended up spoiling the SP’s prospects in the constituency.
Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency has a Muslim population of about 20%, Yadavs among OBCs around 15%, Jatavs around 15% and non-Jatav Dalits around 20 to 25% and general around 28%.
Punjab
In Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and candidate Simranjit Singh Mann clinched victory from the Sangrur seat with a slender lead of over 5,000 votes over his nearest AAP rival Gurmail Singh.
The defeat in Sangrur would come as a huge setback for AAP in Punjab since the seat was held by CM Bhagwant Mann. Moreover, it comes just weeks after the AAP comfortably won the elections in the state.
Sangrur is known as the stronghold of Bhagwant Mann from where he had won in both 2014 and 2019. The seat fell vacant after Mann resigned as MP following his victory from the Dhuri constituency in the state assembly polls.
Notably, the constituency witnessed a poor voter turnout of just over 45.3% in the bypolls held earlier this week.

Assembly bypolls: BJP scores 3/4 in Tripura, AAP keeps Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar
Tripura
In the high-stakes assembly bypolls in Tripura, chief minister Manik Saha managed to win from the Town Bordowali seat in order to stay in office. The BJP had replaced Biplab Deb with Saha earlier this year.
Out of the remaining three assembly seats that went to polls from the northeastern state, the BJP won two and the Congress bagged one.

Tripura chief minister & BJP candidate Manik Saha with supporters at a road show after winning from Town Bardowali seat (PTI)
CM Saha won the bypoll to the crucial Town Bardowali seat by 6,104 votes. He secured 17,181 votes, which is 51.63 per cent of the total votes polled, as per the Election Commission.
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 per cent of the total votes polled. The seat was previously held by BJP.

With this victory, Roy Barman became the only Congress MLA in the assembly after the party’s complete rout in the 2018 assembly elections.
The CPM 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 per cent), while CPM’s Shailendra Chandra Nath secured 14,197 votes (39.2 per cent).
In Surma, BJP’s Swapna Das won by a margin of 4,583 votes, securing a total of 16,677 votes (42.34 per cent). Her nearest rival Baburam Satnami of TIPRA Motha got 12,094 votes (30.7 per cent).
Delhi
In Delhi, the AAP won the Rajinder Nagar seat with CM Arvind Kejriwal calling the victory the “defeat of BJP’s dirty politics”.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s Durgesh Pathak on Sunday defeated BJP candidate Rajesh Bhatia by a margin of over 11,000 votes in the bypolls.
The bypoll was necessitated in the wake of AAP leader Raghav Chadha leaving the seat after being elected to the Rajya Sabha recently.
Thanking the people, Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi, “Heartfelt thanks to the people of Rajendra Nagar. I am grateful for this immense affection and love of the people of Delhi. This inspires us to work harder and serve.”
“People defeated their dirty politics and appreciated our good work. Thank you Rajendra Nagar, thank you Delhi,” he added.
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) retained the Atmakur assembly seat in the state by a huge majority of over 82,000 votes.
In the one-sided bypoll, YSRCP’s M Vikram Reddy decimated his nearest rival G Bharat Kumar of the BJP.
Bharat Kumar and all other candidates forfeited their deposit.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of industries minister M Goutham Reddy in February this year.
Vikram Reddy is the brother of Goutham Reddy.
Jharkhand
Congress candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey won the Mandar assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes.
The by-election was necessitated after the disqualification of the Congress candidate’s father Bandhu Tirkey as an MLA in the wake of his conviction in a corruption case.
Tirkey’s nearest rival Gangotri Kujur of the BJP secured over 44,000 votes.
(With inputs from agencies)