Ruling parties win all six seats in by-polls in 5 states

In Tamil Nadu, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa won by a record margin of over 1.5 lakh votes from the RK Nagar seat in Chennai. Ecstatic Jayalalithaa said: "It is a historic win, I assure that I will tirelessly work to fulfill the voters' expectations, and needs."

In a shot in the arm for the United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala ahead of Assembly polls next year, KS Sabarinadhan of Congress won from Aruvikkara in Thiruvananthapuram by a margin of 10,128 votes defeating his nearest Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) rival M Vijayakumar of the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

Sabarinadhan, son of former speaker G Karthikeyan, whose death in February necessitated the by-poll, polled 56,448 votes, while Vijayakumar, a former speaker and ex-state minister, bagged 46,320 votes and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and former Union Minister O Rajagopal polled 34,145 votes in the fierce triangular contest.

BJP retained <g data-gr-id="26">Garoth</g> Assembly seat in MP's Mandsaur district albeit with a reduced margin than in the 2013 Assembly polls.

Chander Singh Sisodia defeated Congress' Subhash Kumar Sojatia with a margin of 12,945 votes, an election officer said. The BJP had earlier won by a margin of 25,755 votes.

The Congress, however, termed BJP's win with a lower margin than earlier as a "moral defeat" for the ruling party.

CPI(M) won both the Pratapgarh (SC) and Surma (SC) assembly seats by a huge margin in Tripura.

Ramu Das defeated his nearest BJP rival <g data-gr-id="31">Mousami</g> Das by a margin of 17,326 votes in Pratapgarh constituency while Anjan Das beat his nearest BJP rival <g data-gr-id="32">Asish</g> Das in Surma by a margin of 15,309 votes. Significantly, BJP dislodged the Congress from the second position in both the seats.

In Meghalaya, Congress won the <g data-gr-id="28">Chokpot</g> seat by a margin of 2,550 votes with its candidate <g data-gr-id="29">Blubell</g> R Sangma defeating her nearest rival <g data-gr-id="30">Philipole</g> Marak of National Peoples Party.

The poll outcome in Kerala is a big relief for the four-year-old UDF government as the opposition had used every opportunity to corner the government on the solar and bar bribery scams.

Attacking the CPI(M), a beaming Chief Minister Oomen <g data-gr-id="33">Chandy Chandy</g> said the party had insulted the electorate by alleging that the UDF had earned the victory by splurging money earned through corrupt deals and liqour.