New Delhi: The results of all the bypolls held in 29 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats were declared on Tuesday.
The BJP and its allies won 14 Assembly seats while the Congress bagged eight out of 29 seats in the latest round of bypolls, with results mostly favouring ruling parties in the states except in Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP lost all three Assembly seats and the prestigious Mandi Lok Sabha constituency to the Congress, and Telangana.
The Trinamool Congress swept all four Assembly seats in West Bengal with Udayan Guha winning the Dinhata seat, previously held by the BJP, by a record margin of 1,64,089 votes.
Meanwhile, the Congress party swept the Himachal and Rajasthan bypolls. The party wrested the Mandi Lok Sabha seat from the BJP and won all three Assembly seats in Himachal.
In Rajasthan, the party won both the Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar Assembly constituencies with margins of 18,725 and 20,606 votes, respectively. It also reclaimed Madhya Pradesh's Raigaon, a traditional BJP seat, after 31 years, besides bagging one seat each in Karnataka and Maharashtra. However, it lost Jobat, a reserved ST seat, and the Prithvipur Assembly seat in MP to the BJP, which also retained its Khandwa Lok Sabha seat. The BJP-led alliance claimed victory in all five Assembly seats in Assam. The saffron party also wrested Telangana's Huzurabad from the ruling TRS, while securing a win in Karnataka's Sindagi.
The sympathy factor appeared to have worked for the parties as in Himachal, Congress' Pratibha Singh, wife of former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who died in July, won in Mandi Lok Sabha seat while Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar, wife of former Independent MP Mohan Delkar whose death necessitated the by-election, bagged in Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat.
Similarly, the kin of deceased MLAs fielded by the Congress in Maharashtra, the JD(U) in Bihar and YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh also won.
The ruling BJP retained Khandwa Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh and wrested Jobat (SC) and Prithvipur Assembly seats from the Congress but ceded Raigaon (SC) constituency to the Opposition party.
The party also consolidated its position in Assam as its alliance won all five Assembly constituencies with the saffron party bagging three seats and its ally United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL) emerging victorious in the two.
It gained a seat in Telangana with the victory of former state minister Eatala Rajender who switched from the ruling TRS, while its ally JD(U) retained two sets in Bihar.
In Rajasthan, where Congress retained one seat and snatched one from the BJP, the saffron party candidates not only lost the by-election but stood third and fourth in Dhariawad and Vallabhnagar constituencies respectively.
Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala, who quit the assembly in protests against the Centre's new agri laws, was re-elected from Haryana's Ellenabad Assembly bypolls.
Former national footballer Eugeneson Lyngdoh won from the Mawphlang constituency in Meghalaya.
In Karnataka, the BJP wrested the Sindgi assembly segment from the JD (S), but lost Hangal constituency to the Congress, seen as a jolt to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai as the seat neighbours his Shiggaon Assembly segment in Haveri district and he had extensively campaigned there.
This was also the first major electoral challenge for Bommai, after taking charge as the Chief Minister.
Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh are due in December next year.
The Congress cited the bypoll results to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to shed arrogance, repeal the three farm laws and stop petrol and diesel "loot".
"Every victory for the Congress is a victory of our party worker. Keep fighting hate. No fear!" Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.
The final tally in the bypolls is: BJP - seven, its allies JD(U)-two, UPPL - two; Congress - eight, TMC - four, YSRC - one; INLD - one; MNF - one; NPP- two, UDP - one.
Five of these 29 seats were in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each is in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Telangana.
The BJP had earlier won in around half a dozen of these constituencies earlier, the Congress had nine, while the rest were with regional parties.
Voting was held on October 30 for the bypolls, seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of the next round of Assembly elections in five states, including politically critical Uttar Pradesh.